Gender bending

What would it take for more women to attend the annual World Economic Forum meet at Davos in Switzerland? Indra Nooyi,PepsiCo’s chief executive,joked to The Guardian that organising the conference in mid-summer might encourage more women to turn up,as the snow and ice of Davos’s winter would appeal to the more adventurous male delegates than the female ones. The joke may have been slightly sexist,but the observation is acute – only 16 per cent of the delegates this time were female. Naina Lal Kidwai,HSBC head in India pointed out that its something women of her generation are accustomed to. She told The Guardian ,“ In a number of the sessions I’ve been to – on the environment and finance – there have been no women on the panel and not many in the audience.” The resignation that Kidwai feels is telling – in a world where 50 per cent of the workforce is still struggling to get equal pay,there’s hardly anything shocking about the scarcity of female delegates at this most elite of international events.