Ambassador April H. Foley

Opening Remarks at the Conference on Women and Careers in the 21st Century

Debrecen University
February 15, 2007

From left: Ambassador Birgin, Ambassador Foley, Ms. Porkoláb, and Dr. Dobrev (Embassy photo by Attila Németh)

Good morning ladies and gentleman.

What a pleasure to see such strong interest in this topic!

I want to start by thanking Dr. Nagy and the University of Debrecen for hosting us today and for their foresight and appreciation of the importance of this theme.

I am pleased and honored to join such great women and strong leaders as Dr. Dobrev, Ms. Porkoláb and Dr. Ferenczi, who can speak eloquently about the challenges that women in Hungary face in the workforce of the 21st century. And we also welcome the distinguished Ambassador of Australia, Clare Birgin, to present another perspective on how women are dealing with these challenges globally. 

I applaud Ms. Dobi and the management of Procter & Gamble for this great initiative. Procter & Gamble is a pioneer in promoting corporate diversity and particularly in developing women leaders. We hope their example will convince other companies to take a closer look at how they can increase shareholder value and improve their performance by recruiting and promoting more women.   

I am passionate about the advancement of women.

It's critical for women to have equality in their ability to progress professionally.

I firmly believe that there are few things in life as exhilarating as professional achievement. Women should not be denied the profound joy of professional fulfillment. Women should not be denied the opportunity to advance to the highest levels in their chosen professions, if that's what they want and they have the talent.

Promoting the political and economic participation of women is an important element of U.S. foreign policy. The United States is deeply committed to advancing women's causes around the world, and to helping women become full participants in their societies.

President Bush and Secretary of State Rice recognize that women's empowerment is more than a question of individual human rights. And it is not just a "women's issue."

Economies and societies need women's participation to continue to grow. As women increase their participation in business, economies grow and democracies are strengthened. The World Bank estimates that countries can increase their GDP growth by one percent just by increasing women in the workforce. GDP can increase by up to 19 percent when more women own their own businesses.

With global competition and new trans-border challenges, no society can afford to ignore the potential contributions of half of its population. 

The U.S. economy remains the strongest in the world, thanks to America's entrepreneurs and business leaders.

And guess what!

In the United States, women-owned businesses account for nearly half of all privately held firms. And American women are opening businesses at twice the rate of American men.

The United States has been successful in this regard, first, because the government passed supporting legislation on equal wages and against discrimination.

But it was also proactive programs by the U.S. Department of Labor and the Small Business Administration that provided the financing, networking, mentoring, and training support, that have propelled women forward in the business world.

Universities can help by providing the right education and skills. Families and communities can help by giving women the courage and confidence they need to pursue their career aspirations. But, in the end, it is the senior management of all organizations who must make a commitment to the advancement of women.

The United States, like the rest of the world, still faces major challenges. 

Although women now make up 46 percent of the U.S. labor force, only 2.2 percent of chief executive officers in the top 500 U.S. companies are women. Sadly, the glass ceiling still exists.

Catalyst, an independent research group in the U.S. which promotes women in business, recently estimated that it would take 40 years before women and men share equally top management positions in the United States. 40 years!!

This is despite that fact that Catalyst also found that U.S. companies with a higher percentage of women in senior leadership positions outperformed other companies. In fact, companies with more women at the top delivered total returns to shareholders that are on average 34 percent higher. Clearly, promoting women to the highest ranks makes good business sense.

Here in Hungary the picture looks similar.

Hungary has some extremely talented women -- Katalin Szili, Ibolya Dávid, Kinga Göncz -- who demonstrate clearly that women are fully capable of handling the most demanding senior level positions.

But despite the amazing strength and capabilities of Hungarian women, women in all walks of life, from politics, to business, academia, and community leadership, far too often are not making it to the highest levels. And the question is why?

When I look at the Global Gender Gap Report 2006, Hungary's statistics on education indicate no weakness. The education levels that women are achieving are fully equal to those of men. So the problem is NOT a lack of education.

The statistics that are less encouraging relate to women's ability to get to the top: Hungary's women earn only 52% of what Hungary's men earn…52%! For equal work!  I hope that raises your blood pressure as much as it does mine.

According to research conducted by Hungary's Social Innovation Foundation in 2002, roughly 60% of the respondent women feel disadvantaged to men when it comes to career advancement and income.

So what do we do about it? How should we react? These are huge questions. There are no simple solutions. And there is no one perfect model. 

In the United States, companies have taken a range of steps to increase women's participation. You will hear some examples from Procter & Gamble shortly. There are many approaches. 

GE, for example, has a Women's Network that is also active here in Hungary. I met with them just a couple of months ago. I was impressed with their efforts to support women in their career growth. IBM Hungary has a women's resources program that tracks the number of women in management positions and encourages others to seek them. Pfizer is committed to building a diverse workforce that fosters more creative and innovative thinking. 

Almost 70 percent of U.S.-based global companies have formal mentoring programs and 75 percent have at least one employee network in place. 80 percent of companies have family-friendly, flexible work policies, including reduced or part-time work schedules, maternity and/or paternity leave, telecommuting, and job sharing. 

Of course, each company has to take into account the culture where they operate.  Some programs that work in the United States may not work in Hungary. 

I am not here to propose any particular path, but rather to partner with others to advance the dialogue toward a shared goal.

We each have powerful experiences. By sharing them,

• we hope to generate some ideas,
• to propose some new suggestions,
• and, above all, to create momentum for women in today's professional world. 

Here in Debrecen alone, there are other great U.S. companies looking for talented people. I visited two yesterday: National Instruments, which won the magazine Business Week's "Best Place To Build a Career Award" in the United States, and SCI Hungary, a leader in innovative approaches to business systems and solutions.   

So thank you again for being here and I look forward to our roundtable discussion.