The battle of the sexes is outdated

You can tell just by reading her regular "Blitzlicht" column in the print edition of ORGANISATOR: Monique R. Siegel is a person bubbling over with ideas. She could have enjoyed her retirement long ago, but that would not be her thing. She has a doctorate in German studies and business ethics and prefers to tackle new projects. Her latest "baby": the think tank "Female Shift. What at first glance sounds like feminism in endless loop turns out to be something quite different on closer inspection: the focus is not on gender warfare and demands for women's quotas, but explicitly on emphasizing the differences between the sexes. Femaleshift.org wants to move away from a mindset of female emancipation that would prefer to declare war on all masculinity, and toward a new way of thinking that finds solutions to global problems together. "Never before has there been such a density and parallelism of problems and conflicts. For this we need new approaches to solutions, worked out together by women and men at eye level," the website says.

Assume responsibility

51 percent of humanity are women. It is therefore astonishing that a majority allowed itself to be dictated to for so long by a minority as to what it should or should not do. This is in stark contrast to the "women" megatrend: Never before has there been a generation of women as well-educated and ambitious as today's generation. Accordingly, there is a shift of competencies and responsibilities away from men to women. Yet women are still seen as a "minority worthy of advancement," according to Monique R. Siegel. "Such thinking dates back to yesterday," she states resolutely. Instead, she says, it is now a matter of both sexes working together - including across generations - to overcome the major crises. The proven prerequisites would be there: It is a fact that mixed teams work more profitably.

"We as a society expect women to take responsibility," is one point in Female Shift's credo. On the other hand, Female Shift also relies on the new fathers: They show a completely different attitude toward women and have a strong interest themselves in changing the working world in their favor.

Offers for SMEs

For her project, which was launched in June 2017 with a pilot event, Monique R. Siegel has found a comrade-in-arms who has been championing the cause of women in business for decades: Rosmarie Michel, born in 1931, long-time president of Business and Professional Women (BPW) Switzerland in her own right, long the first female member of the Board of Directors of Credit Suisse, and today a doyenne of the city of Zurich's business community. Together with other - also younger - comrades-in-arms, the two ladies want to make the think tank and the platform www.femaleshift.org palatable to SMEs. As a pool of experts, information hub and innovation laboratory, it is available to interested parties. The range of services includes events for decision-making, presentations of examples of best practice and innovation, and roundtables for the exchange of information with experts. The think tank also offers its services to support the evaluation and implementation of companies' own inclusion projects.

April 9 event

Diversity in Action: This is the topic of the next Female Shift event on April 9, 2018 (4 to 9 p.m.) at the Zunfthaus "zur Meisen" in Zurich: What can be discovered for the personal handling of diversity? How do others deal with it? What examples of success exist? And what lessons can be learned from failure? At this event, the contributors will tell their stories - inspiration should be provided.

More information on www.femaleshift.org.