Power Women - Meg Whitman
Less than 20% of the women are political heavyweights in a world that is still dominated by men. Of the 44,000 parliamentarians worldwide, over 34,000 are men, with the largest representation of women, over 40%, from the Nordic nations and the smallest, less than 10%, in the Arab world.
Why are there so few women in the world of power? Apart from the fact that they have been historically dominated for centuries, research shows that women are drawn to organizations that provide values beyond wealth and power. Whereas most men cannot do without one of the two, a women equally empowered with skills and knowledge base would gladly forgo both for alternative professions and choose those that are less competitive and more emotionally fulfilling.
We will bring to you, on a weekly basis, profiles of “power women” from across the world who have achieved and broken through the glass ceiling of the male- dominated world of politics. Our first choice for the spot is one who has created both wealth and power with her own efforts, a rare double, a first generation self made billionaire, and the 2010 California gubernatorial nominee Meg Whitman.
Many of us are aware of Meg Whitman’s role in stewarding eBay, the internet auction house, from a 30 employee tiny start-up in 1998 to a 15,000 employee global giant with a turnover of $8 billion in 2008, when she voluntarily quit in favor of John Donahoe, the current president and CEO.
What we probably don’t know is that she is among the 10 rare self-made women billionaires in the world, who did not partner with their father or husband during their journey to wealth. With a personal fortune of $1.3 billion, this highly resilient ex-CEO of eBay also served on the board of Proctor and Gamble and Dreamworks SKG until early 2009.
Continued on the next page
Follow Technorati