"WHY WOMEN MEAN BUSINESS" Co-author Leads INSEAD Asia Campus Seminar March 11, 2009

SINGAPORE, Feb. 17 /PRNewswire/ -- "No region has such extreme differences in the participation of women in the economy as Asia," says Avivah Wittenberg-Cox, Founder and Publisher of the Website, WOMEN-omics.com. "Countries and businesses are realizing that the participation of women as consumers, employees, and leaders is a measure of health, maturity, and economic viability. Amid the current financial crisis, we can ill afford to ignore the economic contribution that women can offer."

Ms. Wittenberg-Cox, a leading gender consultant to corporations and co-author of "Why Women Mean Business: Understanding the Emergence of Our Next Economic Revolution" (Wiley, 2008), will speak in Singapore at the Asia Campus of INSEAD, one of the world's largest and leading graduate business schools. The seminar, "The Emergence of Our Next Economic Revolution," will be held on Wednesday, March 11, 2009. Her address will open the seminar, which includes other distinguished business leaders from the region.

"The West can learn from Asia, and vice-versa. At one extreme, the Philippines has a female President, the world's highest percentage of women in management (58%), and also one of the highest birth rates in the world," says Ms. Wittenberg-Cox. "At the other extreme, in Japan, you see one of the lowest percentages of women in management (6.9%), and also one of the lowest birth rates in the world. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has found a positive correlation between high participation rates of women in the economy and high birth rates. The bottom line is that women are central to the challenges of an aging workforce, falling birth rates, and skill shortages."

While public policy is a huge lever in facilitating and supporting the economic contribution that women can offer, the Website WOMEN-omics.com and the book Why Women Mean Business take the economic arguments for change to the heart of the corporate world. "Women today are a majority of the talent coming out of business schools - and they make up to 80% of consumer purchases," says Ms. Wittenberg-Cox. "No company or country can afford not to tap into that potential."

Other participants in the INSEAD program include:

• Piyush Gupta, Citibank CEO of South East Asia Pacific;
• Rhodora Palomar-Fresnedi, Unilever Global Vice President of Diversity;
• Gary Tiernan, Standard Chartered Bank Global Head of Investment Advisory & Fiduciary and Managing Director;
• Claudia Zeisberger, INSEAD Professor of Decision Sciences; and
• Christina Pantin, Reuters Asia Editor for South East Asia and Pacific.

For press attendance, or if you would like to speak with Avivah Wittenberg-Cox, please contact Davia Temin, Suzanne Oaks, or Trang Mar of Temin and Company at +1 212-588-8788 or news@teminandco.com.

About WOMEN-omics

WOMEN-omics (www.WOMEN-omics.com) is the first Website making the business case for gender balance and exploring the economic impact of women on companies and countries. Providing exclusive global reporting, updated daily, on women's growing economic impact on companies and countries, WOMEN-omics aggregates the best information, ideas, and insight in the field. The site is designed for corporate leaders, top executives, policymakers, journalists, researchers, business schools, and women in the workplace.

About Avivah Wittenberg-Cox

Avivah Wittenberg-Cox is Founder and Publisher of WOMEN-omics. She is an expert in corporate gender bilingualism (getting companies to speak the language of both men and women), CEO of 20-first, one of Europe's leading gender consultancies, and co-author of the bestselling "Why Women Mean Business: Understanding the Emergence of Our Next Economic Revolution" (Wiley,

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SOURCE WOMEN-omics

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