Roundtable on Women Leadership held during Boao Forum

 
       (Wang Baosheng, Editor-in-Chief of Chinese Culture Figures)  On March 30, the Roundtable on Women Leadership during the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) Annual Conference 2023 was held in Boao, south China’s Hainan Province. The theme of the session was “An Uncertain World and Women Leadership.” A total of 14 outstanding female delegates spoke during the session, including diplomatic envoys and representatives from international organizations, sports, academic, art, and business communities. They included the Wife of the Chairman of the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) Yoo Soon-taek, Mary Robinson, the President of The Elders, former President of Ireland, and former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, UNICEF Deputy Executive Director for Partnerships Karin Hulshof, Deputy Director-General of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Wang Binying, Founder and Chair of MS Energy Wei Qiong, Norwegian Ambassador to China Signe Brudeset, Qian Fangli, deputy to the National People's Congress (NPC), member of the NPC Financial and Economic Affairs Committee and Director General of the Department of Electronic Commerce and Informatization of the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM), Ren Yifei, Chair of the Board of Directors of Rencent Chuhe Charity Foundation, Senior Vice President of iFLYTEK Du Lan, Chair of Deloitte China Vivian Jiang, APP-China Vice President Zhai Jingli, Olympic Art Ambassador and Chinese sculptor Huang Jian. Lyu Hailin, former President of the UN Women's International Forum, presided over the session and made a concluding speech.
       Lyu Hailin agreed with the guests and shared her story of exerting femininity in diplomatic activities. Lyu Hailin said that the roundtable discussed many profound issues in a limited time, and produced many thought-provoking sparks, which helped to expand the thinking dimension of women's issues and also helped more women to awaken their consciousness, do what they can and live it to the full. Regarding the value of femininity in social development, Lyu Hailin said that the inclusiveness and resilience of women's strength play an important role in the efficient operation of organizations and sustainable socioeconomic development. Since ancient times, Chinese culture has respected the Yin-yang concept and the Hehe culture, paying attention to tolerance, peace, and integration, which is a pearl of excellent wisdom in dealing with the relationship between men and women, between China and other countries, and between oneself and others. In view of the various difficulties faced by women in their development, Lyu Hailin encouraged that the mentality of the weak who only feel sorry for themselves is not desirable, and it is unrealistic to expect a pure idealistic mentality. Only by keeping a clear head and confident attitude, judging the situation, and making positive progress can we be invincible and truly become noble people with an indomitable spirit.
       Yoo Soon-taek, the Wife of the Chairman of the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA), expressed her heartfelt welcome to the guests who participated in the roundtable discussion. She said that the three-year COVID-19 pandemic has brought many difficulties to the world and people, and it is a great pleasure for the guests present to overcome obstacles and made it get together. She said she would like to offer her sincere wishes to this roundtable session and its guests.

       Mary Robinson, Chair of The Elders, former President of Ireland, and former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said that the world is facing three major survival crises, namely, climate change and the biodiversity crisis, nuclear crisis, and coronavirus crisis. At present, there have been many outstanding female leaders in dealing with violence against women and girls and education, but there is a lack of female leaders in dealing with major crises such as climate change. She called on women from all walks of life to put climate change and other issues at the top of the attention list and actively express their voices. She said that in the face of community and family problems, women always stand up and play an important role; Nowadays, the global crisis also needs women leaders and women's strength. Artists, entrepreneurs, and scientists should focus on major issues such as climate change and give full play to women's leadership.
       Karin Hulshof, UNICEF Deputy Executive Director for Partnerships, said that the connotation of leadership includes trust, vision, foresight, understanding, responsibility, resilience, listening and communication, and willingness to take risks. Male or female alike, these are the necessary characteristics to become a leader. It is more difficult for women to become leaders because women have different reproductive responsibilities than men. It is precisely because of women's unique social responsibility that women's development is very important to society. However, those children, especially girls, who have dropped out of school since childhood and quit school due to the epidemic, not only lack the opportunity to learn new skills, communication skills, and employment skills in the digital age but also have difficulty acquiring basic survival skills. She called on the guests present to pay more attention to the next generation of young women and children not in school. She said that we have the tools and education to achieve all the goals we want to achieve, but at the same time, we can also be role models for the next generation of women, become their beacons, illuminate their paths, and help them overcome difficulties to realize their dreams.
       Deputy Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization Wang Binying said that her intellectual property protection work has provided various tools and resources to help women protect their ideas and innovations and ensure that they can benefit from their own labor. She reminded the participants that April 26th is World Intellectual Property Day, and World Intellectual Property Day 2023 will focus on the theme of women. In the field of intellectual property, women have also made outstanding contributions and played an important role. She said that although women are faced with various challenges such as gender issues, violence, and inequality in education and opportunities in an uncertain world, the rapid economic development has also brought new technologies and business models, and blockchain, artificial intelligence and other digital technologies have expanded the space for women's development. In her encouragement, she said that she is not the only woman working in an international organization. In the future, women will have many opportunities to achieve success. She should be aware of women's own strength and independent status and believe that she has the ability to reshape the future of the world.

       Wei Qiong, Founder and Chairwoman of MS Energy, said that women's awakening is the most important foundation for them to exert their leadership. She explained that women should have a clear understanding of the unique challenges they face; Maintain sufficient insight and perception of the opportunities brought to women by the dividends of the times; Women have unique talents in perception, insight, and sensibility, which can help them play a unique leadership role in diverse teams. She believes that the absolute advantage of women's leadership stems from their unique femininity, and only by being able to lead people who are better than themselves can the team have a future. She stressed the importance of women's awakening and encouraged every woman to go beyond the expectations of others and live as she wants.

       Signe Brudeset, Norwegian Ambassador to China, said that women create value in the family and can also create great value for society. We should let more women participate in the work, create wealth for the country and increase taxes. Therefore, the government should help women get the opportunity to choose freely and help them strike a balance between family and work. For example, introduce measures to allow young women to get enough support during pregnancy and childbirth; Fairness should be achieved as much as possible on issues such as early childhood education facilities, affordable housing prices, and the rights of diverse families. Doing so can further prevent the decline of the fertility rate. Signe Brudeset mentioned that the education system needs to be reformed with the future economy as the guide, strengthen vocational education, and ensure that technicians, electricians, engineers, plumbers, and other jobs can render both suitable salaries and a good working environment. At the same time, gender discrimination in career choices should be avoided. She stressed that women can do any job they want and enter any industry they want, and society should support women's free job choices.

       Qian Fangli, deputy to the National People's Congress (NPC), member of the NPC Financial and Economic Affairs Committee, and Director General of the Department of Electronic Commerce and Informatization of the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM), shared her views on women's power in the wave of digital change. She said that the integration of the digital economy with women's careers has brought new opportunities to women and shed light on women's leadership in more groups. For example, live streaming selling by young mothers is gaining popularity, which enables more women to increase their income while taking care of their families, and helps them gain double recognition and respect from their families and society. She believes that this trend of taking advantage of the digital economy and expanding women's development space not only occurs in China but also helps other women in underdeveloped areas through international exchanges. For example, she said that Kevin, a Rwandan girl, returned to her home country to build Rwanda's first online fashion brand after studying digital entrepreneurship projects in China, and sold her products all over the world through China's cross-border e-commerce platform. Qian Fangli said that with the continuous development of the digital economy, women will play a vital role, and there will be a broader space for the growth of women's leadership.
       Ren Yifei, Chair of the Board of Directors of Rencent Chuhe Charity Foundation, said that her team members are all women. Although the age span is large, femininity enables team members to give full play to their respective advantages and work more harmoniously. In the charity work of helping students and the disabled, Ren Yifei found that compared with the charity work led by men, female teams pay more attention to children's physical and mental health. “Male-led non-governmental organizations tend to pay more attention to children's food and clothing, ” Ren Yifei said. “While women pay more attention to children's mental state and physical and mental health after some events.” She said that physical and mental health and food and clothing are equally important in charity, which is related to children's future and social development. She called on more women to participate in charity and public welfare, give full play to their own advantages and contribute to charitable undertaking and public welfare.

        Du Lan, Senior Vice President at iFLYTEK Co. Ltd., said that in the era of artificial intelligence, women are participants and the first beneficiaries. OpenAI's chief technology officer is a woman. It is her insistence on pushing ChatGPT from laboratory to life and opening it to the public that makes this technology accepted by the world today. Du Lan said that 90% of the sounds synthesized by machines are feminine because women have a stronger sense of empathy and are aesthetically intelligent, so femininity is widely used in human-computer interaction. The future development of artificial intelligence will bring more credible and reliable man-machine relationships under the guidance of women, and bring the power of progress to society. She also shared her personal experience after engaging in marathons and translating related books: First, the potential is unlimited, and there is unlimited room for improvement regardless of the foundation; The second is to live in the present and experience every moment in the face of challenges; The third is to relax physically and mentally and use exercise to relieve emotions; Fourth, entrepreneurship, with strong love and persistence to achieve their goals.
       Vivian Jiang, chair of Deloitte China, said that 40% of her organizations are women, and the proportion of women in management is even higher. Experience shows that in an uncertain world, whether it is an international organization or an enterprise team, having a pluralistic, equal, and inclusive organizational culture is the source of certainty. She suggested that women will play a greater role in the digital age because of their unique competence. She explained that in addition to people's inherent intelligence quotient and emotional intelligence, women also love intelligence, aesthetic intelligence, and integration intelligence, which will help women gain more room for development in the digital age. Jiang Ying shared a message to all female friends present: Confidence is most attractive.
       Zhai Jingli, vice president of Sinar Mas Paper (China) Investment Co., Ltd., said that the difference between men and women in leadership stems from different thinking modes of different genders. Women are concerned about groups, potential relationships, and the coordination of needs among different members, so they will seek a leadership style to achieve concerted efforts and pay more attention to the achievement of overall goals. Therefore, female leaders are more cohesive and attractive. Combined with her experience, Zhai Jingli said that in the process of digital transformation and management of enterprises, women are better at flexible management and have irreplaceable advantages. Female leaders are innately delicate and gentle, especially with a compassionate personality of caring for others, which is conducive to communication, and they pay attention to equality, respect, and tolerance. This leadership style facilitates transactions, including reducing transaction costs and management costs and reducing transaction risks. She believes that although the digital economy provides more employment opportunities for women, their right to speak is relatively limited. She suggested that gender differences in the digitalization process should be eliminated and a more women-friendly industry ecology should be established. She stressed that female leaders, as a business force rising quietly in the new era, are bound to hold up half the sky in enterprise management.
       Olympic Art Ambassador and Chinese sculptor Huang Jian shared her story of using art to spread friendship and peace as a female artist. She showed the photo album of her works on the spot, especially the achievements of spreading Olympic culture for more than 20 years, and said that as an artist, it is a great honor to use art as a borderless language to contribute to peace and friendship of mankind.