– Women today have so many roles that it is really hard to count them. But if we have to mention the most important role, it is the role of one who leads, who extends a hand and gives advice when asked. Each of us can successfully live that role, regardless of what title comes after her one or two surnames. It is important to pause for a moment, be grateful for what we have and what we have achieved, and in that way encourage ourselves for the next step – Bojana Božanić Ivanović, director of Lider, in the introductory part of Lider’s conference ‘Women in Business’ which today gathered more than 400 entrepreneurs, directors, and managers in Zagreb’s Lauba.
Božanić reflected on an Ipsos survey which revealed that young people believe that women’s rights have gone too far. As many as two-thirds of young people are aware that there is inequality between men and women, but younger generations believe that all these efforts have simply endangered men and that we are starting to discriminate against them. We posed the same question in a survey on Lider’s LinkedIn profile and 41 percent of participants agreed with that thesis.
– On one hand, we can be appalled by this data and wonder how it is that a century-long struggle for women’s rights is so undervalued. On the other hand, we can look at it from the perspective of younger generations. In some countries, these rights have existed for so long that they consider them completely normal. That is actually good, but it is our task to show them that this is not the end, that they should continue the fight for a more equal world. There are not really any revolutionaries, rebels hide behind the screens of their mobile phones. If we truly want to maintain existing rights and create a fairer and better world, we must find a way to preserve the ‘fire’ and pass it on to new generations, because it is the young who will build the world – concluded Božanić in front of a full Lauba.
Petra Mlakar Zorko, Communication and Advocacy Lead at L’Oreal Adria, for the Vichy brand, which is the conference sponsor, emphasized at the beginning of the conference that women make up 50 percent of L’Oreal’s board members, and more than 50 percent of L’Oreal’s international directors are women.
