Leaders say women dare to take the lead

Some of Europe’s most powerful business women talked about their journey and battle to lead the career ladder at a conference held by the Luxembourg Times and the Financial Times on Thursday.

At the event in the Luxembourg capital, Philharmonic, De Beers Jewelers and De Beers Forevermark CEO Celine Asimon said:

Earlier this month, the EU decided to impose gender assignments to ensure that women secure at least 40% of the company’s board seats by mid-2026. The block also sets a 33% target for senior women.

Giny Boer, CEO of fashion retailer C & A Europe, said: “Now I don’t know why it’s 40% or 50%.”

Many speakers said at the three-hour conference that most of women’s success is to be real themselves and companies need to do more to increase their self-confidence.

Grace Roldan of the London School of Economics says that many women change their personality to suit them, but being on an equal footing in the race to the top makes them less credible. It means that. Someone who is studying inclusion within a company.

For Manou Hoss, managing partner of law firm Elvinger Hoss Prussen, leadership needs to help build women’s self-confidence through training, mentoring and sponsorship. “Gender equality has always been my agenda in all my decisions,” she said in a panel of four discussing the path to equality.

Managing Partner of Manou Hoss, Law Firm Elvinger, Hoss, Prussian

Guy Jaray

Martine Reicherts, chairman of Mediahuis Luxembourg, said women need to take the lead. “Dare you are, and like you are, it’s part of success,” she said.

The audience consists primarily of women who play an influential role in business in Luxembourg and elsewhere in Europe, telling the speakers how they achieved it, and what they have to do along the way. I asked about the choices I didn’t make.

Women often face the choice of family life or career when becoming a mother. Both parents need to organize themselves and discuss how to manage both tasks, the speaker said. Many countries throughout Europe are now allowing more flexible parental leave options, increasing the opportunities for fathers to take leave to raise their children.

Currently, men and women may take parental leave as well, but companies often refuse to take parental leave for men, says Brian Ballantyne, co-founder of Menfor Inclusion.

Karin Scholtes, Senior Executive of the International Bank of Luxembourg

Guy Jaray

“The number of men taking childcare leave is increasing. [now than in the past] And more and more men want to spend time with their children, “says Karin Scholtes of Banque Nationale à Luxembourg. “Parent-child relationships are one of the most important moments when a decision is made.”

However, despite their flexibility, most of the childcare leave is taken by women, and it is women who spend about 80% of their time reducing their working hours to manage childcare. “We were obsessed with taking care of our families,” Hoss added.

For Sam Cooper-Gray, head of marketing strategy at HSBC, if a man feels part of a conversation and a woman is challenging, “sitting in a room with another woman doesn’t solve the problem.” Is important.

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