"Yin and Yang - The power of opposite but complementary forces" - Chidiogo Akunyili

Gender parity is not a plea for equality; it is a way forward for our world. ‘Men and women are so different’!  I had once exclaimed in bewildered amazement to a chorus of friendly laughter and agreement from a room full of young career women.

The women in question were the Davos Women, a name adopted as a cheeky counter to the ‘Davos Man’ phenomenon. Davos Women’s club still happens once a month in Geneva, whereby the women involved in helping make Davos happen, representing different ages, cultures and backgrounds, come together to share their challenges and create a support system for each other to flourish.

Why such a group should exist did, I have to admit, initially strike me as odd. Why would we restrict attendance to women when everyone at some stage in their working life could benefit from companionship, mentoring and support? What was the purpose of this? And how did it differ from any other hangout of friends on a weekday evening, complete with copious amount of cheese and free flowing wine. What ensued in the next weeks as part of this group was a revelation as captured in my exclamation, ‘men and women are so different’. In the short space of time, we shared, we laughed, we cried, we were vulnerable, we dreamt, we advised, we inspired each other. It was unlike anything I had ever seen.

Imagine a world where love, laughter, care was at the centre of everything that we do. Imagine now a world where they are not. Is it possible that the latter choice is that which we live? We have before us a world where we are not our brother’s and sister’s keepers—where selfish interest and the pursuit of personal wealth is king. Now recall that the system and its laws are created to serve the governed and ensure continued progress. The question now is, ‘do our current system serve humanity’? With widening inequality, wars, global warming and financial crisis, most will be hard pressed to argue positively.

We are indeed at a crossroads. The world needs leadership that embraces new thinking and a global mind-set? It needs leaders that can build environments that are not ruled by fear but instead protect our vulnerabilities and strive to push the limits of our potential?

To get this, we must roll up our sleeves and get to work. The road ahead is arduous and the herculean task is rendered even more difficult when we rob women the equal access needed to reach their potential. By withholding education, access, security, freedom, we are effectively doing ourselves a disservice, with each injustice moving farther away from a solution to the crisis that looms.

A girl child that is not sent to school because she is a girl; a female student molested by a professor because he can; a girl raped because “she asked for it”; a job lost because a woman would not accept to be less than herself; a board room full of men, a government with half of the population not represented in its leadership; a glass ceiling imposed on a women’s career advancement because it offers the path of least resistance; childcare that has not evolved significantly in the past century; cultural norms that take away freedom of a woman, shall I go on?

In such times of dire global challenges, by depriving the world of talented women, we are robbing ourselves of millions of solutions of that which plagues us. We have taken part of the best of us, the caring nature which is our birth right (mind you this is not based on any scientific studies, but simply my gut), and we have degraded millions of women to second class citizens. The world needs love and care now more than ever before, and it is time we give women all over the world a chance to design a system that has in its core a support structure…the best part is, we do not discriminate, men also welcome! Or else it’s the Davos women’s club.

Gender parity is not a plea for equality; it a demand to allow us, together, men and women, to put the best parts of our shared humanity to work and heal the world.