Women in Business.Do we need more of them?
CeBIT Glodal Conferences 2012, Hannover
Natalya KasperskyCo-founder of Kaspersky Lab,
CEO of InfoWatch Group of companies
A co-founder of Kaspersky Lab, the #4 world antivirus vendor
1997-2011 – CEO and Chairman of Kaspersky Lab (2500 people, €500M annual revenue)
CEO of InfoWatch, software developer of data leakage pevention for enterprise
Investor in 5 other IT and Internet companies
A member of Board of Directors of the German-Russian chamber of commerce
A mother of 4 children
About myself:
Percentage in large organizations: At the top level ~3-5% At middle and low levels > 50%
In small and medium businesses: Up to 43% of managers
In IT business – females represent less than 2% of top managers
Female management in Russia
Is it good or bad? Should anything be done about it?
Should companies purposefully increase number of women in business?
Should quotas on women participation in business help the business growth and competitiveness?
What should we expect from increasing number of businesswomen?
Women in business - questions
Priv
ate
life
fact
ors
Economical factors
Business factors
Carrier influence on:
Male Female
Family position Career helps his marital status and happy family life
Business success often leaves her less time and desire for the family
Number of children More LessChildren in family Will be raised by their
motherWill be raised by nannies or relatives
Life satisfaction The higher position – the higher is personal life satisfaction
The higher position – the lower is personal life satisfaction
Private Life Factors
“Some 90% of executive men but only 35% of executive women have children by the age of 40” Harvard Business Review, Management Women and the New Facts of Life.
Career and Life Satisfaction: Men vs Women
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3
4
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Women
Men
Life
Sati
sfac
tion
Level of Career + Age
1. Aging population Germany's working-age population is likely to
decrease 30% over next 40 years (Berlin Institute for Population Development)
20% of 82 million German inhabitants are now aged 65. This number will increase to 33% by 2060 (the Federal Statistics Office)
Socio-Economic Factors in Germany
2. Birth rate decrease 1990 - 1.5 children per German mother; 2010 - 1.38
children per mother Germany's population of 82 million could drop by up to
17 million over the next 50 years 651,000 children were born in Germany in 2009 —
30,000 (3,6%) fewer than in 2008 Germany has the longest history of low fertility in
Europe (Goldstein's research)
3. Increasing number of migrants Migrants along with their children born in Germany
represent ~20% of German population
* Source: The Federal Statistics Office
Socio-Economic Factors
Competition is increasing
Business work bring more stress and a need for tough decisions
Globalization of business demands more travelling and 24*7*365 online involvement
High demand for (and lack of) high qualified specialists
In IT-business – good technology understanding, continuous study
The reality is the men in average are stronger and more eager IT managers than women
Business Factors
Why there is no quotas for women in:
Profession, sport Possible reason: Marines troops [strength, aggression?] Basketball teams [weight, height, speed?] Corrida [reaction, strength?] Ping-pong teams [reaction, what?] Chess teams [what???] Programming [what???]
Why there is no quotas for men in: Nursery [patience, scrutiny] Birth giving [what???]
Some thoughts on quotas
Artificial increasing of female representation in business will lead to:
For personal life: More unhappy women Fewer number of happy families
For the economy: Growing problem of aging population Further decrease of the birth rate
For business Decrease of business competitiveness Lack of true professionals in favor to the ideology of
“equality”
Do we really need it?
Is the ideology of the enforced “equality” more important?
My Conclusions
Thank you for your time!
Questions?
Natalya KasperskyCo-founder of Kaspersky Lab,
CEO of InfoWatch Group of companies
www.infowatch.comwww.egosecure.com