Letter from the International Presidents

Dear Members of EWMD

The first half of this year has proved to be most successful with our wonderful celebrations of the 25th anniversary of  EWMD. Our great thanks go to Claudia Schmitz and Andrea Weber and the team of helpers, especially Dominique Petit,  who managed to organise  a most inspiring and vibrant conference which has left us all with most vivid memories and ideas for keeping the names of great women and our own name alive for many years to come.

We were extremely pleased that Elisabeth Blum's presentation gave much clarity and guidance to help us in making the decision to pursue the 3LGenerations  Project which was subsequently voted for at the AGM. We were also very happy to announce that Dr Özlem Weiss has been officially voted to take on the voluntary position of EWMD International Marketing Director. Özlem is an extremely active member of the Rhein Main chapter, based in Frankfurt and is also organising an intercultural business group which will be reported on later in the year and will also be linked to other such groups within the association.

This year's AGM saw the end of the "double" term of office for our International President, Tina Reisenbichler, who has been working hard in this function for the last four years. Tina has brought in great experience and personal and corporate support for EWMD as well as building up international contacts and EU visibility. We would like to take the opportunity to express our heartfelt thanks to Tina and wish her all the very best for the future as well as with her new role as advisor to the association with the inauguration of a new EWMD Honorary Board, a wise suggestion made by Susanne Hummen, and will consist of ex members of the Managing Board of EWMD. 
This new EWMD Honorary Board will appreciate the past contribution of those
highly experienced and wise women and give them a platform to bring in their
ideas as mentors/counsels as well as adding more sustainability to the
network. Members of this Board will not be elected but nominated, they act
purely advisory to the international Board.

The present Nominees  Ambra Poli, Marie-Theres Claes and Angelika Poth-Mögele as well as Claudia Schmitz and Tina Reisenbichler  seemed to be delighted of this nomination. Some first ideas were to think about innovative topics for the next conference and foster cooperation with business schools.

We warmly welcome our new International President Teresa Correia de Lacerda ,
the founder and chairwoman of the Portuguese group (statement to
follow). 

Please read the Minutes of the AGM for all the news and plans for the rest of the year and also do not hesitate in sending us any ideas for our annual conference next year. We welcome any input and assistance and look forward very much to making the  latter half of this celebratory year another positive step towards the promotion of EWMD and  getting together whenever we can whereever we are to hearten, encourage and uplift each other in whatever way we can.

with our very best wishes

Nicole Meissner 

International President

Tina Reisenbichler

International President

Letter from Teresa Correia de Lacerda 

New EWMD International President

Dear Members of EWMD,

I would like to thank you for the confidence invested in me, following the election that allowed me to become your representative as international president of EWMD.

It’s a great honor and privilege to follow the founders and previous presidents of EWMD in this outstanding cause: inspiring and energizing women to have a more active role as leaders in organizations, in politics, in economics and in society!

According with the latest studies, women in top level positions are regarded as a factor of competitiveness for companies:

. McKinsey and Catalyst found a positive relation between women in top level positions and a better financial performance of companies;

. Bass, Bernard (American scholar and researcher) found that women have a transformational leadership style, which is a more effective type of leadership enabling corporate performance beyond expectations;

. McKinsey has reported about the enlarged talent pool when companies also consider women for top level positions;

. Women are the decision-makers for 80% of consumer goods (even if they are not the consumers of such products), therefore women in top level positions are better acquainted to define the corporate strategy for the consumer markets.

In the near future, these two areas of interest will have our full commitment and we also ask for your contribution as well:
. Expanding the network – on a national, European and international level;
. Developing strategic alliances – with NGO, institutional entities, business schools, corporate members and media partners – entities sharing the same vision and values of EWMD.

I would strongly appreciate having your thoughts, insights, knowledge and experience in order to have a highly participative network.

Please feel free to contact me at anytime!

I will leave you with this great quotation from Riane Eisler (social scientist, attorney and author of best sellers):                                                           

“Empowering women can change the world!”

So let’s work hard to have this dream come true…

Teresa Correia de Lacerda  
The way to be a happy woman is to help other women!

Please find my biography and contacts in the following link:
http://www.ewmd.org/node/7250

Letter from

EWMD International Communication Director

Helen Macfarlane 

 25th International EWMD Conference in Brussels

or ... What’s in a name?

My grandmother once told me that your name should carry you through life and beyond.

This always moved me although I would often contemplate about what she really meant by the "beyond" . The weight of a word, of a name can only carry you if it is used and remembered and celebrated. And I felt that this was a core theme of the EWMD celebratory conference in Brussels, which made me understand the "beyond" even more.

To illustrate how, I would like to tell you tell you a story to introduce the idea behind the activities of the conference.

During 19th century Britain,  the communist manifesto was translated by a woman, whose name remained unknown until relatively recently. She was the first translator and commentator on Hegel in English. She was an internationalist and a fiery, incisive revolutionary journalist. Little is known of this woman’s life, but these accolades alone suggest she may be the most important female figure in the history of revolutionary socialism in Britain.

However, our socialist, philosoper, journalist and commentator (a contemporary of Mary Ann Evans alias George Eliot), who as a courageous intellectual has been described as being ”like a shooting star, burning bright and then burning up and disappearing, along with the rise and fall of the revolutionary wing of Chartism. We know nothing of her personal life but she was this amazing creature in 19th century England - a woman revolutionary socialist with an active interest in philosophy and a Marxist perspective.“

Curiously, her name was Helen Macfarlane. This interests me.

Now the reason I am opening my report on the 25th Anniversary of the European Women’s Mangement Development celebration conference in Brussels with a story about my namesake, is not for me to bathe in the fame and glory  of sharing the same name as such a brilliant mind. No, the reason i draw your attention to this Helen Macfarlane is because her name did not appear in any history book, did not get a mention until mid last century, 1958 to be exact, when a historian  noted that one of the most prolific journalist, who wrote under the name of Howard Morton, showed a remarkable understanding of what would later become known as Marxism.

Helen Macfarlane was brought to my attention by a journalist who was trying to contact me and googled my name to be met with pages of Helen Macfarlane the translator of the communist manifesto. And I really felt almost bewildered that I had never heard of her before.  She was a hidden prominent figure of the Victorian era. But there are no records of her existence, hardly any archives of her written work, she simply disappeared into oblivion. 

Of course the fact that we still have a lot of work to do to find and record the names of great women of our past who never got a mention for all their work, their discoveries and their progressive actions especially during the times when they had to fight to be heard is nothing new. There are plenty of associations and organisations doing just that. And I feel that EWMD is an association whose goal is not only to support European women in management but we can also promote and secure women's names in history, making a far more concrete basis for our advancement.

This aspect was a very great part of our 25 years celebration this year in Brussels, and this is why it may be more fitting to begin the report of the conference  by mentioning one of the great methods and the tools of discussion within the gathering; the World Café. This is  a most  effective ( and enjoyable) way of collecting and exchanging ideas and in this case women's names,  amongs larger groups of people, a wise choice of activity by Claudia Schmitz. Groups were made according to our national chapters to allow for language and communication to flow freely during the main discussions. In these groups the names of women who have influenced us in our lives were recorded, exchanged and discussed from table to table. You can read these names in the following documents on

Names of women flowed fast and freely : from grandmas to gurus, public figures to private personalities, world reformists, writers, educationalists religous leaders, union leaders, scientists  and of course to ewmd founders and ewmd sustainers.
There were plenty of names which came effortlessly and passionately to our minds, but as i mentioned before when it comes to historical female figures in history we are limited to the names to choose from...but we are changing this, aren't we!
The conference in Brussels was a fabulous start to remembering and celebrating women in a historical context and also in the here and now!

The past present and future of European Women’s Development was certainly celebrated, and we started on a path of carrying names into the future, including some more of the past. And one thing became quite clear: there is a lot in a name!

You can read the names of all the women's names on http://www.ewmd.org/events/25th-international-ewmd-conference-brussels
File: worldcafé women of influence.xls

All photo material and documentation is available if you follow the link http://www.ewmd.org/events/25th-international-ewmd-conference-brussels 

The Conference

with a simple explanation to the link to the available documents (all found on the above link).

Friday 19th June

The conference started on the Friday evening with a champagne reception in the Tasso Bar.

The Tasso Bar is inside the Thurn&Taxis, Royal Storage house in the harbour of
Brussels where we met for a vivid evening reception before the wonderful gala dinner. Some of us had arrived earlier in the day (and had an international board meeting in the afternoon) but others literally jumped off the plane and came straight there.

Our passionate Samba dancers (led by Brussels based EWMD member Suzanne Lanzersdorfer ) arranged for a group of professionals to come and give us a short introduction to the dance moves (if you ask me many members had been practising secretly as they all did a great job!) and a nice group were then present in ”plain clothes“, ready and waiting to be asked to dance throughout the evening. It was a great way to be able to hit the dance floor and be swept of our feet by professional dancers.

You can also see in the collections of photos that our Uzbekistani friends also gave us a taste of their own traditional music and dance

To crown the celebration we had a special birthday girl.
Alexis Zorzaki’s daughter, Serena turned ten on the same day! Read her lovely comments on our website
http://www.ewmd.org/topics/amtzortzaki/high-energy-brussels-conference

some pictures and information - our first evening

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wimpers/695208024/ 

Saturday 20th June

The conference was opened by our International Presidents Nicole Meissner and Tina Reisinbichler

Nicole welcomed all the diverse nations present sitting at their respective national tables or in a mixed group ready for lively debate and discussion and world café activities which were an essential part of the conference.

Claudia Schmitz the organiser and former International President (amongst many other jobs over many many years) continued the conference kick off with another warm greeting and a great presentation of the previous presidents and the work behind EWMD before passing over the forum to real founding members.

EWMD INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCES 1985-2008.doc    94 KB

Founding Members greetings.ppt    785.5 KB

Founding Members

Ambra Poli

Margit Wallsten

Both Ambra and Margit made extremely powerful and moving speeches and statements as founding members of EWMD with great emphasis on the great movement and the development of women in management in the past and the way to carry on in the future. Especially the need to disseminate the information and the importance of the International Newsletter as a tool to do this!

Ambra EWMD Start in 1984.doc    43.5 KB

Christine M. Merkel

Head of Division for Culture and Memory of the World
UNESCO / German Commission for UNESCO

Presented us with some of the great milestones of women in the last 25 years, seen from a cultural perspective in Europe
Christine’s ”Mosaic of Memory“ is a colourful and inspiring constellation of
Women in herstory who have exerted great energy wisdom mentoring and democracy (EWMD) over the past 25 years.  Another extremely uplifting reminder of the names of women who have changed history with their courage, stamina, belief, lifes and deaths. The presentation ended with the image of the flamingo, which flies in flocks. Starting of slowly and gracefully, and sticking together up high into the sky....

01 MERKEL Her-story EWMD 25_BXL.ppt

02 Bio C M MERKEL_EWMD 25 Years.doc

Angelika Poth Mögele

Director of Policy
Council of European Municipalities and Regions

Secretary General of EWMD International for many years.

Angelika gave us a clear overview of European policy concerning diversity and more insight into the continuing inequality of  political organisations. She pointed us towards the 50/50democracy campaign

http://5050campaign.wordpress.com/

Elizabeth Trallero

National President of Spain Entrepreneur in Barcelona, presented some comparative facts and figures concerning  women in management in Europe. She encouraged all members to stop searching for peanuts but go for the coconuts!

Elizabeth is also a great inspirer and impassioned source of EWMD energy ....and has been to 22 of the 25 EWMD conferences!!

Elisabeth Women in Management in Europe 2009 20-6-09.ppt

Marit Hoel

Director of the Corporate Diversity Council in Norway
Marit Hoel is the founder and CEO of the Center for Corporate Diversity in
Norway.  The objective of the Center is to present the case for diversity in business and also to insure that the Norwegian business community recognises and utilizes the growing competence of businesswomen in Norway.
She made a lively presentation of the procedure and events which took place in Norway in the bid to raise the percentage of women on executive boards.  

Insights to change in Norway wob 2009.pdf

Marit Hoel Short Bio.pdf

Gabriele Hantschel

International President of EWMD in 2003-2005,
Gabriele the interim results of the EWMD Women on Board project.
The aim of the project is to leverage experience, best practices and successful “women on board” projects in Nordic countries & UK for Germany, Switzerland, Austria. who will bring some new  topics on the subject.

Gabi WomannOn Board.ppt

Brigitte Schraetzenstaller-Rauch from Sandoz,
shared the position of a Corporate Member concerning the women on board and the quesiton of diversity and presented their alternatives to quotas.

Ninja Schmeer, a young graduate spotlighted her situation today and her ideas about future and networking.

Teresa de Lacerda

A moving insight into the pursuit of happiness which Teresa mentions in her letter of introduction above.

The Pursuit of Happiness.ppt

Elisabeth Blum

3GL Project initiator and leader

Elisabeth presented us with the concept of the 3Generations project to be developed within the framework of an EWMD international project. She had the difficult task being the last presentation after a  hard long day, but did a fabulous job, illustrating the concept with the help of 24 ewmd members who had to follow her instructions to demonstrate how the concept will be organised. This lively activity certainly worked and the project was subsequently officially accepted at the AGM!

3GLBrusselsHandout.pdf

Our ewmd daughters Paula, Serena, Joana, Filipa  and Inês  stole our  hearts from the moment they joined in with our activities to the moment they disclosed or did not quite disclose their future dreams of becoming professionals in careers such as veterinary to teacher to doctor to following in the lively and colourful footsteps of parents...and of course took to the dance floor and showed us what we used to be able to do (some of you proved you still can of course ;)

The conference was followed by another reception and a wonderful dinner in the rearranged venue of our conference where we could enjoy the most convivial cocktail of each other, delicious food, wine and discussions.... on and off the dance floor preparing it for th AGM on Sunday morning.

For another summary of some events please read Lithuania's report by National President and Representative Vilija Turiene

1) http://www.ewmd.org/topics/anita-moser/pictures-brussels-made-vilija-lithuania

With many thanks for all those who have contributed photographic material including Brigitte Speidel-Frey, Anita Moser, Susanne Humman, Christa van Winsen

Please follow links to the photos of the evening

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wimpers/695208024/