Dr. Anino Emuwa

00:00:02:12 – 00:00:19:23
Dr. Anino Emuwa
Then I had my daughter, and my daughter was then going into the corporate world and everything. And then I asked her in investment banking, but how many of the women cried for the room? And she said to me, not very many. And I thought, oh gosh, that’s strange. And why is that? And then I started looking at the stats, right?

00:00:19:23 – 00:00:53:22
Dr. Anino Emuwa
Looking at the stats, that is to say, you know, looking at, how many women go into this feeder horses, etc.. And I went back to my time when I studied economics. I never looked at it, I never thought about it. And actually seeing that I was a minority as a woman. But I never looked at myself and never realized that I was a minority in economics, minority, banking minority, anything I did because that wasn’t the way that I was brought up in education and at all.

00:00:54:00 – 00:01:27:13
Claudia
Hello and welcome back to Shift Happens. Can you imagine that it will take over 200 years for men and women to reach equality and leadership globally. So why care when we’re not even around anymore? Because we hold a responsibility for society, particularly the next generations. The question really is what is important to the world? In my conversation today with Doctor Anino Emuwa managing director of Adventist Group based in Paris, we speak about the nature of the workforce, ingrained biases.

00:01:27:15 – 00:01:53:04
Claudia
What it takes as a leader, men and women, to change policies. Still, too many systematic issues beyond individual performance are holding women back to take on leadership positions. Doctor Nino shares a pivotal personal experience how even she, as a high performing banker, was confronted with biases once she became a mother. Despite excellent results, we speak about the powerful global community.

00:01:53:04 – 00:02:19:18
Claudia
Doctor Andino has started 100 women at Davos, where already women of 109 countries are represented, supporting each other. You hear about Africa and how it’s going to power the world with its big and young population. We hear about Nollywood, the growing movie industry in Nigeria and more. I am very excited about this episode.

00:02:19:20 – 00:02:46:01
Claudia
On another note, I’m so proud and excited to announce that shift happened. Season five is supported by London based jewelry brand Tilly Swiss. Its founder, Tilly Swears, creates gorgeous, timeless pieces that have been featured in Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Marie Claire, The New York Times. Her jewelry is for women of all ages. Guess who is wearing it to no one less than Taylor Swift.

00:02:46:03 – 00:03:21:16
Claudia
And if you watch this episode on YouTube, you can see me wearing the legendary T-bar necklace. Go to Tilly, Swisscom, Lifestyle y, SVR, Nasscom and use code shift happens. One word capital letters to get 15% off.

00:03:21:18 – 00:04:00:20
Claudia
Welcome, doctor. UN nino amour. I’m really so grateful for you to make time for this. Because, first of all, I know how extremely busy your schedule is, and also because I know that you’ve just been through a lot. With the loss of your late mother short of her 90th birthday. I read a lot about her. After you announced, and I got a glimpse of what an incredible trailblazer she has been at a time where women really were not seen and heard.

00:04:00:22 – 00:04:05:11
Claudia
So. So thank you so much. And, you know, for being here with me today.

00:04:05:13 – 00:04:10:21
Dr. Anino Emuwa
Thank you, Claudia, thank you for having me. And thank you for the acknowledgment of the condolences. Thank you.

00:04:10:22 – 00:04:30:22
Claudia
Yes. So before we get started and before we talk about a shift in your life that really has propelled your career into a different direction, I would like to ask you some questions to warm up. It’s early in the morning here. What is your current state of mind?

00:04:31:00 – 00:05:00:03
Dr. Anino Emuwa
Well, my current state of mind, I think, is despite everything is positive. And, I think it comes from the sense of determination and clarity about how important it is, the work that you’re doing. And that’s really what makes me feel positive. Not on my own. It’s also with incredible women and men to keep believing that. So it’s difficult, difficult times.

00:05:00:05 – 00:05:05:19
Dr. Anino Emuwa
But I think, there’s that sort of positivity because there are many people who feel the same.

00:05:05:21 – 00:05:12:21
Claudia
Thank you. If you had a magic wand and could shift one thing in the world today, what would it be?

00:05:12:23 – 00:05:26:12
Dr. Anino Emuwa
Then there’s no doubt about it, it would be the total inclusion in with women working side by side with men in leadership predominantly. And then, you know, in general in the workplace, there’s no doubt about it.

00:05:26:14 – 00:05:30:21
Claudia
What is your superpower?

00:05:30:23 – 00:05:50:09
Dr. Anino Emuwa
I think, should I say resilience? I think resilience I think it is. That is despite all. It doesn’t matter what it is and just, figuring out that one just should go on. Right? You know, even when the energy is low or whatever it is or, you know. Yeah, you know, not so positive things I think is just for me, just resilience really.

00:05:50:11 – 00:05:54:04
Claudia
If you look back at the past week, what made you smile?

00:05:54:06 – 00:06:19:02
Dr. Anino Emuwa
Oh gosh. What made me smile? Actually, I can’t extract the last week from what I went through, and I think just even the memories and recollections of my mother and seeing how people were acknowledging her and what she meant to them, really, and reading or hearing, I think that made me smile. It gave me sort of, sort of positive.

00:06:19:02 – 00:06:26:04
Dr. Anino Emuwa
Right. Positive feelings that, this was a life that was impactful to so many others. So I think that’s it really.

00:06:26:06 – 00:06:36:08
Claudia
Yeah. Thank you.

00:06:36:09 – 00:07:09:05
Claudia
So I could imagine that your mother, the role model that she was as a woman, as a as a person in law and business in leadership really instilled also your strong take on equality, gender parity and leadership and general fairness. So it would be great if you could share with me this moment where you personally realize that women are just still so repressed in leadership.

00:07:09:06 – 00:07:21:17
Claudia
And when you decided, okay, that’s it, you know, this is what I’m going to devote my work to and my life too. Was that particular experience or when did this really hit you?

00:07:21:19 – 00:07:42:09
Dr. Anino Emuwa
You know, Claudia, I think it was a multiplicity of events. Really? That hit me. I, as you know, my career started in corporate banking and lending to multinationals. And then I was interested in entrepreneurs, where then I found out that I was actually working with female entrepreneurs and seeing the barriers that they had in accessing finance.

00:07:42:09 – 00:08:00:22
Dr. Anino Emuwa
Right. And so this is decades ago. So that was certainly, you know, the first moment really. There’s also another moment which is personal, which I didn’t really it didn’t really, dawned on me until later. And that was simply, you know, as a high performing, corporate banker, which was the work that I wanted to do, the work that I enjoyed.

00:08:00:22 – 00:08:22:04
Dr. Anino Emuwa
Right. And, I then became a mother. And as a mother with a young child, you know, you’re quite clear about your work. Your work has to be. I mean, it’s you’re right in front of the client. You have to perform and everything. And that is the focus, without a doubt. But at the same time, what it is you do with organize yourself right in the right ways.

00:08:22:04 – 00:08:39:16
Dr. Anino Emuwa
That would balance, you know, your responsibilities, which wasn’t working less, it was working differently. And so the numbers still counted. The performance was still high. In fact, at a level where when we’re looking at performance and reward based on on, you know, on what you’re generating, that you go to the stages where, you know, it’s like, oh my gosh, she’s generating so much.

00:08:39:18 – 00:09:05:04
Dr. Anino Emuwa
At the same time, I had a supervisor who said to, who said, you know, in my, the sort of reports I can’t remember the word for, it skips my mind, you know, reviews and said, oh, in this period of time, you know, and, you know, it’s taking time off for maternity leave, taking time off, you know, for Easter, taking time off of this, taking time for that maternity leave, a start statutory all the other leaves put together was still the part of my leave.

00:09:05:04 – 00:09:22:17
Dr. Anino Emuwa
So it was still my annual leave. Leave. But I taken it and requested for it and got approval in little bits rather than long bits. Right. And yet you still have that negativity where performance was excellent. Revenues were generated. So at that for me was personal. I didn’t think of it as a women’s thing. It was literal.

00:09:22:17 – 00:09:40:20
Dr. Anino Emuwa
I then realized when I had my daughter, and my daughter was then going into the corporate world and everything, and then I asked her in, investment banking, but how many of the women cried for the room? And she said to me that, not very many. And I thought, oh, gosh, that’s strange. And why is that?

00:09:40:22 – 00:09:57:20
Dr. Anino Emuwa
And then I started looking at the stats, right? Looking at the stats, that is to say, you know, looking at, how many women go into this feeder horses, etcetera. And went back to my time when I studied economics. I never looked at it, I never thought about it. And actually seeing that I was a minority as a woman.

00:09:57:22 – 00:10:21:11
Dr. Anino Emuwa
But I never looked at myself. I never realized that I was a minority in economics, minority in banking, minority. Anything I did, because that wasn’t the way that I was brought up in my education and at home. And then I realized there was a systemic issue and individual performance wasn’t going to make things change, but it had to be concerted, global, collaborative, changing the system that would make things happen, not just for justice.

00:10:21:13 – 00:10:35:22
Dr. Anino Emuwa
Coming from a economic background, it was really about improving the state of the world, improving businesses, society, you know, sustainability, everything, required to have the best talent possible. And that’s men and women together.

00:10:36:00 – 00:11:05:12
Claudia
Yeah. And you move the world. I mean, with your, you are the managing director of a Wendy’s consulting, but you also are the founder and started 100 women at Davos. And that just also spin off like, like nothing before. And you are connecting women from all over the world, leaders, women with incredible startups that really have an impact in various fields.

00:11:05:12 – 00:11:31:20
Claudia
And this is such a force. How do you feel this is beginning to manifest, and what is your goal with these incredible movements? Last year you spoke at the UN, the General Assembly, and those are such amazing achievements. And as you said, you are doing it in this community that you have created of bringing all these women globally together.

00:11:31:22 – 00:11:34:18
Claudia
What can we expect from this? Yeah.

00:11:34:20 – 00:11:58:05
Dr. Anino Emuwa
You know, Claudia, the thing about it is, you know, when you are doing something and, you know, as you represented it and seeing how it’s that you spiraled upwards, right? It is more of a reflection of the fact that you hit upon something that women want and not that you created something that anybody didn’t want. So it’s it’s all about reflecting what people tend.

00:11:58:07 – 00:12:19:08
Dr. Anino Emuwa
And that is actually my work. What is it that women want? What do we need? And you would find that most women and that is reason why we have impact. What impact is that a core. So yes, it is for the women themselves, for the women in the community have a bigger mission for the world. And that is what absolutely brings it together.

00:12:19:10 – 00:12:38:18
Dr. Anino Emuwa
And you know, when you say true to me, you know, what is the, what is the end goal content that I want to reach the end goal. And that’s the thing about working. We have a mission because my end goal and my satisfaction and would only happen if we have, you know, women’s representation currently in this is your complete representation.

00:12:38:20 – 00:13:00:21
Dr. Anino Emuwa
But is it going to happen in my lifetime? Well, they say it will take maybe on the on the leadership side. Right. Equality is 123% leadership side is even longer. About 200 years now. My work is to work together with others, women and men to make it a lot closer in our lifetime. I think a lifetime. Would it happen in my time at work is not going to happen, right?

00:13:00:23 – 00:13:20:09
Dr. Anino Emuwa
Okay, I have a limited amount of years at work. So. So in a sense, there is a goal, there’s a vision. It wouldn’t be met. But let us break it down to the daily work that we do very often, because when you have a mission of focusing on the end goal, which is a huge goal, right? And just what can be my contribution?

00:13:20:11 – 00:13:46:19
Dr. Anino Emuwa
But you know something, Claudia? We went to the stats, right? We went to the stats of the community, and we found that we had representation. And this is, you know, today, if you listen to previous podcasts or interviews or whatever, I’d probably say 32 women. It’s not. We went to the stats and the offers come calculated, and we saw that we had women from 109 countries of the world right in our community.

00:13:46:20 – 00:14:07:10
Dr. Anino Emuwa
Right. When we looked at, of course, and Europe is the biggest because you know, where you can company because start in doubles as well. But you know, from Asia, Asia we had, you know, women from I think 20 or 30 countries in Asia. Right. I think we covered almost 30, 40% of most countries. Right. Ocean Oceania was only one out of 17.

00:14:07:10 – 00:14:22:22
Dr. Anino Emuwa
So we have a lot of work to do there. We only have Australia, we don’t have New Zealand and all those islands. Right. But you know, began to tell you. But why is it that I thought was 32 and actually 109, because my focus was always on when we were going to. Yes. You have to look back and reflect.

00:14:23:00 – 00:14:48:08
Dr. Anino Emuwa
But that made me really happy because it tells us that it is universal, because these are the women we have in our community are not really because we reached out to them 1 or 2, it’s because they reached out to us. So the end goal is to bring people working together in this mission who know and feel that is important for themselves, but more importantly, for the world.

00:14:48:10 – 00:15:21:20
Claudia
So you are based in Paris and you are originally from Nigeria? Yes. What can you share about a shift happening on the continent for women and leadership? For women? As entrepreneurs, I feel it’s so much untapped potential. And as Western Westerners, Europeans, and I’ve been living in the US for the most time of my life, Africa is, I feel is still so underrepresented and I’m so curious about it.

00:15:21:20 – 00:15:35:14
Claudia
Yeah. And I feel there is so much that we can still learn and understand about this continent, but in particular, how are women moving forward there in leadership and entrepreneurship?

00:15:35:15 – 00:16:00:13
Dr. Anino Emuwa
Yes, and it is truly important for the world. When we look at Africa, that is going to be the engine of growth for the world, simply because our youth population is enormous, right? When we compare to the population of most of the advanced countries that are declining. So we are going to power the world in terms of youth and contribute, you know, to, to pensions, to growth, etc..

00:16:00:17 – 00:16:25:07
Dr. Anino Emuwa
So that’s the first thing, the immense potential for what has been happening right over the last few years, decades, but hasn’t really been represented right very often in the media, because the media, if you look at the media, media tends to, represent bad news everywhere, right? So tend to have bad news represented, which means that, well, people who want to hear about what is happening, they actually have to search, right?

00:16:25:09 – 00:16:56:03
Dr. Anino Emuwa
If you look at the economic growth and the, per capita growth of Africa over the last 20 years, and this is research which I have done, it is multiplied. It’s been the fastest growing region in the world over the last probably in a decade, with the exception of maybe China. Right. Okay. So it’s fast growing in terms of economy, which of course, the issues with, you know, issues with insecurity, issues with the conflict, issues with poverty, we know this, all of that which we have to look at the trajectory.

00:16:56:05 – 00:17:21:22
Dr. Anino Emuwa
Right. So it is where you start from, but it’s also where you’re going to surpass. Interesting. And then when you then look at what is happening and with women and you give them that kind of back life, the first thing is that there’s so many regional areas. One is technology. When we look at the reach of of adoption of technology technology by the youth populations Africa, that is a massive growth area.

00:17:21:23 – 00:17:45:13
Dr. Anino Emuwa
Then we look at, for example, youth and we look at culture, culture from when it comes to music, which is dominating reading. Now, when we, have to do with the movie industry in Nigeria, my country of origin, Nollywood recorded so infant Nigeria. So rather than Hollywood, Nollywood right. And the amount and it’s it’s a massive interest in music, folk music, culture, art, design.

00:17:45:14 – 00:18:16:02
Dr. Anino Emuwa
Right. These are areas where we see immense growth and fintech, the payments industry right side by side. The challenges without a doubt. Also, this is where growth is happening. And when we look at the role of women and incidentally, I just did a post yesterday, talking about, youth in, in Nigeria, women and youth. And it’s simply because three, three just examples in the last couple of weeks, first of all, was the UN, poet laureate, right, which was just appointed as a Nigerian.

00:18:16:02 – 00:18:35:16
Dr. Anino Emuwa
Right. The first I was appointed happens to be Nigerian. So the post was about Nigeria, but, you know, an African, right? The second thing was, you know, in the in the basketball and in football where my country of origin, Nigeria dominated, right? I’m the one and they’ve been winning for years. Like these items of news don’t really get represented.

00:18:35:16 – 00:18:58:16
Dr. Anino Emuwa
Right okay. And how women are really coming out in terms of sports. So sports, arts, culture, technology, all of it is happening at the same time. Interestingly, I did a research study which was a few years back, which was with a UK company, just looking at the percentages, right, of women in leadership at the biggest content companies.

00:18:58:18 – 00:19:22:07
Dr. Anino Emuwa
In Africa, that is, the publicly, the, the PLC supporting women of quoted companies. And it was interesting to actually see that the rate of women in executive management and board and quarters actually higher right in those companies, right, than in countries like the US. Do we hear that? You know, we don’t hear that news, right?

00:19:22:09 – 00:19:43:11
Dr. Anino Emuwa
There’s a lot to be done because it wasn’t equal. We know, of course, that it varies across the continent. In terms of, for religious reasons, that a lot of the countries in the northern part of the continent that were under the average. Right. So it’s also a mixed bunch. So we can’t really talk about Africa. The continent, 54 countries are segments, you know, and uniform is not uniform.

00:19:43:11 – 00:20:03:18
Dr. Anino Emuwa
There’s a lot happening in different ways. So yes, we do have, you know, the difficulties, the challenges, but we do have opportunities and the ground. And this is where we need to invest more in women, invest more in youth and allow really women and youth to flourish, really. And trying to focus and not just in Africa but even further afield.

00:20:03:20 – 00:20:32:06
Claudia
So your personal shift in really this dedication to bringing women and men in leadership together and to fostering women in leadership is an ongoing wave and it’s an ongoing shift. Luckily, what would you say holds women back in your experience? I mean, you, you said you have this close network or this big network of of 109 countries represented at the, 100 women at Davos.

00:20:32:08 – 00:20:54:23
Claudia
What have you detected is maybe still something that holds women back to shift, to take this extra leap, to take this extra step towards leadership, to say, is it internally in companies? Has it also personal reasons? Where are we where are we with this, in your opinion?

00:20:55:01 – 00:21:31:23
Dr. Anino Emuwa
We think this is really an important idea or important point to cover the reason. Because, you know, very often we see people who are focusing on the internal, on the women and on the organization’s policy. The truth is that it is all of that, which is why we do. We do all of that just at a certain extent, that the reasons are historical, because when we look at the workplace, right, it’s term by 200 years with just realization and the social status of women was very different than what with education and women getting most of the degrees is not reflected right in, in, in leadership.

00:21:32:01 – 00:21:54:10
Dr. Anino Emuwa
And so this one is the socialization. Society has socialized not just men, not just women, women and men to behave in certain ways. So there’s a socialization breaking out of that, right? That’s true, because that socialization also also determines, right what you do and how you do it, and how to how organizations reward and and homes punish you in a sense.

00:21:54:10 – 00:22:12:11
Dr. Anino Emuwa
Right. So if, for example, you are assertive, right. You might be called aggressive as a woman, right. Assertive for a man because women weren’t seen in those rules. So you have all of those, right. And therefore the response is therefore not to be because you are not rewarded for that kind of behavior that your male called colleague is.

00:22:12:16 – 00:22:32:21
Dr. Anino Emuwa
So we also need to, punish organizations and their behavior and, and not just organization institutionalization, right, of certain of these ways of doing things. And that’s what men and women in organizations. So we need to do that. We also need to change policies. There’s some policies. There is no country in the world that has equal rights and equal rights in the workplace.

00:22:32:21 – 00:22:51:22
Dr. Anino Emuwa
Old men and women known for historical reasons. Right. So you have all of that. So one, and if women have been left out of knowledge and networks and all of that, we have to equip them right with the knowledge and networks how to progress into these positions. So it is a combination of all three is really the answer.

00:22:51:23 – 00:23:24:04
Claudia
And the men you work with what needs to happen or does anything need to happen. I think it does for these you know, historical networks that are just existing and make it, challenging for women to rise into leadership as well. What needs to happen or what is actually already happening very tender and slow to come to this leadership where both are represented equally well, what can they do?

00:23:24:06 – 00:23:42:02
Dr. Anino Emuwa
Yes, that’s the thing. Of course we hear about words like male allies, right? Which is not my favorite term. The reason why, because of allies tends to say this is somebody who’s having issues and somebody who’s helping them, whereas it’s something that affects everybody. Right? So as men who also believe in the same, they’re very many of them in leadership.

00:23:42:04 – 00:24:08:10
Dr. Anino Emuwa
I think what the issue is, whether socialization or whatever it is, to do with the workplace, you have to have a certain behaviors that we can determine. And this is some work which I’m looking at. Women tend to be more social, mentored, be more hierarchy, hierarchical and the hierarchical of men and women are assigned to master because it’s not really to listen to women is authentic selves as one in the women will bring in issues and want to deal with all of them.

00:24:08:15 – 00:24:27:04
Dr. Anino Emuwa
Men will go according to the hierarchy, for the hierarchy says this is a generalization. Please accept that. But just generally speaking, this is what we observe and is observed by research. So which means that men do not merely stick out their necks to see. This is wrong, and this is they will do what you know, the hierarchy says they should do.

00:24:27:07 – 00:24:45:08
Dr. Anino Emuwa
Right? Okay. So it is moving from that. So it’s moving men right in disrepute. No. And who are people adopting it in the work as leaders. Right. That it’s not going to change if you just do it in your work. You need to do it outside your work and you speak to the other men who are not doing it is not just yourself.

00:24:45:08 – 00:25:05:14
Dr. Anino Emuwa
Right? And that is a big change, which I think is still absolutely waiting to happen. Because if we have more men who are doing this and who are not silent and who are leaders, big leaders, not to be a silent right in the sense that, they need to move towards, you know, alerting the voice to this, which is not the normal way that men behave in anything, really.

00:25:05:15 – 00:25:13:21
Dr. Anino Emuwa
Then I think that that’s when the big change also will happen. So that is another frontier that needs to be crossed or breached. Yes.

00:25:13:23 – 00:25:21:03
Claudia
And you know, you have, you have a lot of work to do. We we all have a lot of work to do. Wow.

00:25:21:05 – 00:25:23:21
Dr. Anino Emuwa
Into the. Absolutely.

00:25:23:23 – 00:25:46:13
Claudia
So I want to ask you, you said before your superpower is resilience at not giving up. And you seem to be everywhere, at the same time, almost. What do how do you how do you do this on a personal level? Like how do you maneuver through your work life, through your many engagements? How do you take a moment to anchor yourself?

00:25:46:13 – 00:25:52:14
Claudia
How do you do it? And if you are low energy, what do you do to energize yourself?

00:25:52:16 – 00:26:10:18
Dr. Anino Emuwa
Yes. And you know, it’s important and especially for women because, the reality is that we tend to have a lot of other responsibilities outside work. Not men don’t do that. They they do. But, you know, we are tend to be the primary caregivers, right? Whether it’s an aging parents, whether it’s in children, whether it’s in society, we tend to do that.

00:26:10:18 – 00:26:28:09
Dr. Anino Emuwa
Right. So, you know, you have all these other responsibilities, then you have work and, and all of that. And for me, I think it’s two things. One is recognizing the powers of energy. And I know, right, that I push the boundaries. There is no doubt about that. So I don’t want to pretend that it’s so balanced that I don’t.

00:26:28:09 – 00:26:47:00
Dr. Anino Emuwa
I do push boundaries, but I push the boundaries only to a certain extent. Right. And because, you know, luckily I do have control over my time. Luckily I use that control. So, for example, I know that, we’re going to the UN General Assembly. I’m going to be there for seven days. It’s going to be incredibly busy in fact, we have three summits, right?

00:26:47:01 – 00:27:11:12
Dr. Anino Emuwa
In September. One is the Luxury Innovation Summit, which is about, women, wealth and innovation and also sustainability. And then a few days later, we’re going to be in Marseilles for the Global Women’s Leadership Summit, where we, moderating the keynote, sort of the keynote panel at the end and watching this movement on behalf of another organization and then the weekly to well, two days later, we’re going to be in hunger now in between that.

00:27:11:12 – 00:27:34:20
Dr. Anino Emuwa
Right? Those are when you wind down. Right. So I know that I’m on high energy for the week, but as soon as I come back, I know that I have to keep those moments right where I really, you know, my energy again. So it is certainly is a bit like that is a bit like a wave and to be conscious or conscious of it and also do the things that make you healthy, I need to do more of them, there’s no doubt about that.

00:27:34:22 – 00:27:42:21
Dr. Anino Emuwa
We try and do that and, important thing for me is support of the family is critical in all of. That’s right. Eager to do some forms?

00:27:42:23 – 00:28:13:19
Claudia
Yes, because family time is very nourishing and recuperating. Just going back to what you also said, that women still are the primary caregiver. So there is a lot of silent work that is being done. Sweat equity. It’s called it’s how can we how can we create even more awareness of it? Acceptance and respect for it, and maybe even compensation at some point in the near future?

00:28:13:21 – 00:28:29:00
Dr. Anino Emuwa
Yes. And in fact, this is one of the areas, I sit on. The advisory board is one of the week of the Global Forum, and you know this and of course, you know that I’ve seen this one of the most gender equal. It is the most gender equal nation on earth, right. And even still, there’s still a sitting still.

00:28:29:06 – 00:28:49:12
Dr. Anino Emuwa
And one of the issues that we, addressed, one of is, is exactly that. Right. So in terms of, childcare. So one is to make a system where parents. Right, equally responsible or the caregiver group caregivers. Right. We know that, of course, you know, very often you have women who may be single parents. So that is, you know, a suddenly different dynamic.

00:28:49:12 – 00:29:08:05
Dr. Anino Emuwa
Right, as well. But really, the responsibility should fall on groups. And part of that is also another way of socializing again. Right. Because, men and women have been socialized into these rules, right? To know that is equal because it’s important for the upbringing of the child anyway. Then part of it also is in terms of policies.

00:29:08:05 – 00:29:31:13
Dr. Anino Emuwa
If the policy only gives government policy or the organization policy only gives meaning to women, for example, then it falls on women as well. So we need to have, equal childcare policies as well. For, for women, things like countries should have things like, accessible childcare is really important. That’s where parents can actually afford to people childcare when you can’t.

00:29:31:14 – 00:29:58:18
Dr. Anino Emuwa
It’s a problem. You know, the countries in the world where women don’t, you have to have a paid maternity leave. So there’s a lot to do on the policy side. Organizations can actually help as well. But also changing, the way people think about responsibilities, I think is really very important as well, because that is certainly one barrier that holds, you know, women back, we see women dropping off at certain medical, okay, often women who are primed for leadership.

00:29:58:19 – 00:30:20:23
Dr. Anino Emuwa
And when you’re in a situation where you see that you’re not moving as fast as your your male colleagues and this bias, right. And then you also juggling with, you know, childcare sometimes a woman just say, okay, look, I better just focus on the one that, you know, I have control over. Right. Okay. So it’s, it’s something but is connect to actually look at it as collective responsibility.

00:30:21:00 – 00:30:22:23
Dr. Anino Emuwa

00:30:23:01 – 00:30:44:18
Claudia
Yes. And you are really leading this collective responsibility and inspiring it with your work. So that’s fantastic. So you have as next steps there is as you just mentioned a very busy September with summits and the United Nations week. And what does next for the coming year.

00:30:44:20 – 00:30:51:18
Dr. Anino Emuwa
Oh yes. It’s well we’re going to try and get to but this year first, I know that.

00:30:51:20 – 00:31:09:06
Dr. Anino Emuwa
You know, because when we talk about the September reset, you know, is it September for us? You know, really we have a lot of things coming and we, we try to do also some digital events as well. So most classes of workshops for women in leadership, in sort of unusual areas. We have one on the wealth coming up.

00:31:09:06 – 00:31:32:00
Dr. Anino Emuwa
We have another one on storytelling for leaders coming. Also in the October period, we there’s of course, 13 just coming in Brazil. And this G-20 in South Africa, we’re still planning that. So we still have all of that, coming this year. But of course, the big thing for us, of course, is, is that was to have Davos in January, which we are planning towards.

00:31:32:02 – 00:31:48:15
Dr. Anino Emuwa
Last year was our biggest, but that’s just a numbers game simply because each year we grow. So we had a 150 women at our welcome dinner. And we had over 600 of a community who were actually in Davos. So that was amusing. Yeah. So that is the big. Yeah. And that takes off most of January.

00:31:48:15 – 00:32:06:19
Dr. Anino Emuwa
By that time we’re into into the end of January. But then we then of course we have the constant summits that we have through post meeting. We want to do a lot more in terms of, bringing our women together, digitally important on really cutting edge topics that that is worth the time. People are busy.

00:32:06:19 – 00:32:11:06
Dr. Anino Emuwa
So we must make sure that it’s something that speaks to them as well.

00:32:11:08 – 00:32:38:18
Claudia
Yeah. You and, 100 women at Davos. It was an amazing gathering last year. I mean, the energy in the room was just unbelievable. And, and so many women again, from all over connected on such a meaningful level. So thank you so much for creating that. And initiating that. And thank you for your time today. And, you know, I wish you all the best for what’s coming next in September.

00:32:38:18 – 00:32:53:09
Claudia
And yes, I will follow your work and be part of the 100 women at Davos, because I think it really is so impactful and, and useful and, and yay, yay.

00:32:53:11 – 00:33:01:19
Dr. Anino Emuwa
Thank you. Thank you so much. Is such a a pleasure to like having you, as one of us. And thank you so much for all of us to be on your podcast. Thank you.

00:33:01:20 – 00:33:21:02
Claudia
Yeah. Thank you. Have a good rest of your day and see you. Bye for now. Bye bye.

00:33:21:04 – 00:33:43:04
Claudia
My key takeaway today is really that also I have to revisit and be mindful again about my own biases, but I loved the doctor and, you know, as hopeful as we can build and co-create into the future.

00:33:43:06 – 00:34:00:19
Claudia
Thank you for listening to Shift Happens. Please follow and subscribe to this podcast. It’s an easy hit for you with a huge impact for me. It helps me grow even further and bring you more conversations with women from around the globe.

00:34:00:21 – 00:34:19:00
Claudia
Shift happens has been created and is hosted by me. Claudia Mahler editing Andy Boroson, social media. Magda, Reckendrees. I hope you felt connected and heard by listening to Shift Happens.