Davos Still Has a Woman Problem

Female attendance at the World Economic Forum drops to 15 percent

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Fewer women will attend this year’s elite World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland than a year earlier, Quartz reports.

Some 2,633 academics, government officials, NGO representatives and people from the private sector are converging on Davos for the invite-only conference that begins Tuesday. Only 395 of them, or 15 percent, are women.

Last year women comprised 17 percent of participants. Between 2001 and 2005, the participation rate hovered between 9 and 15 percent. It has been between 15 and 17 percent since 2006. In 2009, Businessweek published an article with the headline: “Davos 2009: Where Are the Women?

A WEF representative told Quartz that the ratios reflect the population of the world’s most powerful and influential people, even if the organization would prefer to have more women. The conference does reward business members of the WEF with a an extra, fifth ticket if they have a woman executive or board member.

[Quartz]