Accelerating Gender Equality
Collaborating across networks
Accelerating Gender Equality
Collaborating across networks
Collaborating across networks
Collaborating across networks
The Gender Alliance is a cross-network initiative bringing together feminists from the BMW Foundation Herbert Quandt's Responsible Leaders Network, the Global Diplomacy Lab, the Bosch Alumni Network and Global Leadership Academy Community (by GIZ). All members work probono and are creating their own workstreams of collaboration.
We believe that gender equity is a collective journey, and we are committed to creating spaces where men and women can come together to learn, share, and inspire each other. We are a community of practice that has built trust among group members. We honor this space and, at the same time, we are open to welcoming potential participants who want to listen and share new or diverse perspectives.
1. We are promoters of gender equality. In each of our respective roles, personal, family, professional, as members of the BMW Foundation Responsible Leaders Network, we push for a Feminist Agenda to foster gender equity and work actively in closing gender gaps in line with Sustainable Development Goal 5.
2. We advocate for a gender inclusion perspective. With the aspiration, as articulated in the 2030 Agenda that no one is to be left behind, we affirm that women must have more spaces of representation and participation in contributing to the realization of the 17 SDGs.
3. We champion gender equality regardless of sexual identity. The gender issue is one that masculine, feminine, common, and neutral involving persons of all ages who must be actively engaged to close the gender gaps.
4. We support each other as Responsible Leaders. We encourage each other in the suggestion and scale up of ideas to achieve gender equity.
5. We aim to foster an empathetic approach to feminism. We acknowledge beginning without a common understanding and strive to create a broader foundation to include others without prejudice.
6. We call for an agenda to make the next decade a transformative one to achieve feminist goals. We strive in a transversal way to reach a comprehensive understanding of gender equity that is cross-cutting, diverse, intercultural, and interdisciplinary.
7. We believe that gender balance in all sectors is one of the main keys to transforming the current economic systems, which are broken, by leveraging the complementarity of skills and perspectives among diverse genders.
8. It is our goal to engage with a gender focus throughout 2020 and beyond when hiring, developing new programs, and initiating projects, in funding and other areas of work to accelerate closing the gender gap.
9. We nurture an understanding of gender equity that is cross-cutting, interdisciplinary, and holistic with awareness of religious pluralism, social prejudice against the disabled, and class inequalities.
Pauline Schinkels
Parental Leave, Innovation, Gender Equality
Eirliani Abdul Rahman and Jesse Bump
Foreign Policy. Equality
Dalya Salinas Pérez, Carolina Sheinfeld, Rocío Cañas and Trinidad Saona
Diplomacy, Equality
Sylvia Mukasa
Gender, Technology, Industry
Carolina Sheinfeld
Care, Rest, Mental Health
Bastian Ritcher
Paternity Leave; Parenting; Equality
Carolina Sheinfeld, Rocío Cañas, Trini Saona and Dalya Salinas
Diplomacy; Inclusivity
Sarah LeBrecque
Feminism; Leadership; Gender Equality
Shahira Amin
Feminism; Gender Roles
ElsaMarie DSilva
Diplomacy; Policy
Nappinai NS
Gender Empowerment
Helene Wolf
Alliance; Leadership
What is the overall design/intention of the summit?
We’re building on and launching from the first in-person session in Merida where about 30 BMW RLers identified that a community effort focused on gender equality would be of value. This summit is the first working session where we are looking to hash out how we could use the superpowers and strengths across these networks to individually and collectively move us forward on global efforts towards gender equality.
About the Summit
Across six sessions, including the opening and closing sessions, we’re looking to all participants to roll up their sleeves. We want to create the framework and loose structure that will allow us to learn together, to support each other’s work, to share resources and successes and to help others to join us in working on gender equality.
The opening and closing sessions are designed to bring together as many of the summit participants as possible.
The four thematic sessions are an opportunity to hear from leading experts and to then undertake some mapping to see where collaboration, learning and joint projects/actions could emerge.
Sessions are an opportunity for members to put up their hands to share collaborative ideas/proposals, request for supports, look for peers to share in their experience, gain a stronger understanding of gender equality work (in their own context and across communities).
If you are a member of the BMW Foundation Herbert Quandt Responsible Leaders, Bosch Alumni Network, The Global Diplomacy Lab or Global Leadership Academy Community (by GIZ), please register here.
All times are in CET so please do check local times. If you need further information do get in touch with elsa@reddotfoundation.org
Please find the Day 1, Day 2 and Day 3 summaries
This Summit is brought to you in partnership with Red Dot Foundation, Bosch Alumni Network's Online Activities 2020 Grant and BMW Foundation Herbert Quandt.
Ambassador of Canada to the United Nations, Louise Blais shared her personal and professional journey of breaking glass ceilings and dealing with unconscious bias. Do check her inspiring keynote address.
Carolina Sheinfeld, Dalya Salinas and Trini Saona helped us think through the new form of Diplomacy 4.0 (GDL) and apply it to current times. Dr Ines Kappert introduced the concept of Time to Care which was thoughtprovoking.
Feedback from the breakout sessions in the Inclusive Diplomacy session. This session put Time to Care at the centre of the discussion with a powerful keynote by Dr Innes Kappert.
This session was organised by Nappinai NS and Colette Mazzucelli to discuss the importance of security. It has significant gender impacts, and in the age of the pandemic, these have become even more devastating.
Ms Penny Abeywardena, the New York Commissioner for International Affairs gave the keynote address.
Less than 4% of global investment goes to women led businesses. This session explored the challenges and opportunities to drive more equity, promote more women led businesses and challenge the status quo. The session was organised by Sylvia Mukasa, Rania Reda and Gaurav Mehta with support in the breakouts from Pratima Kirloskar, Vera Futorjanski and Rosa Madera.
In the breakouts, summit participants explored some of the significant challenges being faced as women entrepreneurs. This include having less access to knowledge about potential funding opportunities, resources; access to peers or mentors to help them be supported to sustain and grow their opportunities; explicit and implicit sexism and more.
Mina Lopezlugo, Julie Smith and Imran Simmins led us in a session on Engaging men in Gender Equality using the "Barber Shop Series" toolkit. This allowed us to question and reflect on our unconscious bias regarding gender norms and stereotypes.
Raju Hittalmani graciously created this summary of the Gender Alliance Summit.
Gender Alliance Summit sparked new ideas and collaborations. We have 9 projects that have emerged from the 3 days of co-creation and are ready for the pitches.
Please check the padlet for more details.
The Demo Day was planned on 25th Sep 0330 - 0530 pm CET to showcase these projects and invite partners, Foundations and others to support in any way they can.
Gender Alliance hosted an interactive session at the Global Intrapreneur Week 2020 on 11 June 2020.
ElsaMarie DSilva and Thandi Dyani welcomed everyone and explained the session. Colette Mazzucelli shared the Feminist Manifesto which was the first co-creation of the members under this banner.
We deep dived into the following thematic areas through breakout sessions:
Eirliani Abdul Rahman harvested the feedback from all the breakout sessions.
The Gender Alliance was invited to host a panel at UNIDO's Conference on Women in Industry and Innovation.
Inspired by the stories of female leaders and entrepreneurs, the panel focused on the individual experiences of our Responsible Leaders in their organizations and countries. The discussion was moderated by Elsa Marie D’Silva, Founder & CEO, Red Dot Foundation, and hosted the following members of the Responsible Leaders Network:
On 9th December, The Gender Alliance and Red Dot Foundation organised a campaign for the 16 Days of Activism named “Gender Tech in Civic Issues”.
The discussion was moderated by ElsaMarie D’Silva along with four phenomenal speakers, Sylvia Mukasa (Founder, GlobalX Investments Ltd/GlobalX Innovation Labs), Ritu David (Founder, The Data Duck), Janet Chapman (Chair, Tanzania Development Trust) & Ines Silva (CoFounder, Portuguese Women in Tech), who shared their insights on the issue.
The session culminated with a conclusive statement, 'Feminist Problems need Feminist Solutions,' a concrete statement that was a definite step forward.
Co-created by the global Responsible Leaders Network, strategic partners, and the BMW Foundation, the Equity, Diversity, and Belonging Week (EDB Week) took place virtually from June 28 to July 2, 2021. The intention of this week is to open a global conversation about social injustices and their implications, learn together, and put structural change at the heart of achieving the UN 2030 Agenda.
The Gender Alliance members moderated the discussions on the panel A Tale of Three Cities: Exploring the role of men in gender equality.
Or share your work towards gender equity?