Navigating Cultural Change Initiatives

𝘈𝘳𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘯 𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘯 𝘢 𝘮𝘢𝘯-𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘦𝘥 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥? Yes. Without thinking twice, yes! The world was not designed for women. Not in the cars we drive. Not in the phones we hold. Not even in the way we plan cities. For decades, the gold-standard crash-test dummy was modelled on a 5′9″, 171-lb male body. The global average woman, at about 5′3″ and 137 lb, is far smaller - yet safety tests still rely on male defaults, putting women at greater risk in real-world crashes. This means that:  1. Women are 17% more likely to die and  2. 47% more likely to be seriously injured in a crash     All because the ergonomics weren’t designed with them in mind. Also, as per the WEF report, it’s shocking but only 5% of R&D funding in the healthcare sector is spent on women’s health needs globally, despite women making up 50% of the population. From medicines to AI, a lot of products and services were tested and trained on males.  It’s a pattern in how the world is built. Male is the default. Products, systems, and policies that are less safe, less effective, and less accessible for women. In India, women didn’t have equal property rights until the Hindu Succession Act of 1956, and it was only in 2005 that daughters were given equal inheritance rights as sons.   Globally, women are expected to control $5 trillion in assets in the near future. For the first time in history, women are becoming primary decision-makers for major financial choices. And yet, most products and services still treat women as an afterthought. Women influence over 80% of global consumer spending, yet while they’ve been relentlessly marketed to, they’ve rarely been truly designed for. Femtech is often misunderstood as “women-only” products. But in reality, it’s about intentional design for women’s needs, whether that’s a wealth management app tailored for first-time female investors, healthcare platforms reimagining maternal care, or everyday products built for different body types and lifestyles. This harsh reality points to a larger opportunity: • Move beyond token pink packaging and actually solve for women’s lived realities. • Build personalised, curated experiences that reflect women’s independence and decision-making power. • Rethink how we design, from finance to transport to healthcare.    As Caroline Criado Perez wrote in the book Invisible Women: “When we exclude half of humanity from the design process, we also lose half of the potential solutions.” The question lingers: Will the next decade of innovation still make women adapt to the world, or will we finally design a world that adapts to women? Video Source: World Economic Forum #Innovation #Startup #Women 

A month ago I was with IMD #EMBAs in Japan on program about resilience, where conversations about #population_decline seem to be everywhere. The country's fertility rate has plummeted to just 1.15 (2024) children per woman, one of the lowest in the world. It’s been declining since the 1970s. But here's what's fascinating: #fertility rates had decreased in Japan much more than Sweden for the same period. Why? New research (May 2025) by Nobel laureate economist Claudia Goldin reveals something counterintuitive: the #speed of #economic_development matters more than the level of #wealth. Japan experienced explosive economic growth from the 1960-80s. Per capita income quadrupled in just two decades. But here's the catch, #social_norms couldn't keep pace with economic reality. The result? A #generational and #gender_conflict: • Women gained education and career opportunities rapidly • Men largely maintained traditional expectations about household roles • Today, Japanese women do 3+ hours more unpaid household work daily than men • In contrast, Swedish women do less than 1 hour more than men This isn't just about childcare policies or economic incentives. It's also about what happens in #private, when societies transform faster than cultural norms can adapt. Countries that developed more gradually (like those in Northern Europe) gave men and women time to #renegotiate #household_responsibilities. The result? Higher fertility rates even with high female employment. The lesson is clear: #economic_transformation without #social_transformation creates demographic challenges that are incredibly hard to reverse. These findings are especially meaningful in the #current_context when gender equity becomes a political fault line, workplace norms continue to reward availability over care, and traditional gender roles make a come back. Walking through Tokyo's quiet neighborhoods, you can feel this tension a modern economy built on traditional family structures that no longer work for the #families (and #women) themselves. Goldin reframes the #fertility_crisis as a #macroeconomic and #cultural challenge. It’s not about persuading women to have more babies, it’s about redesigning the world so they can. Worth reading the full paper in comments #Demographics #Japan #GenderEquality #EconomicDevelopment #SocialChange

Recommended reading! She RISES: a framework for caring cities Cities often mirror the inequalities embedded in society. She RISES: A Framework for Caring Cities, developed by surabhi tandon mehrotra, Kalpana Viswanath, Ankita Kapoor and Rwitee Mandal from Safetipin, brings this imbalance into sharp focus. It exposes how urban design and governance frequently overlook the gendered dimensions of city life, especially the invisible role of care work in sustaining urban systems. The framework is built around four core principles: Responsive, Inclusive, Safe and Equitable Spaces. Together they form an integrated approach to gender transformation through four streams of action. The first stream focuses on public spaces and infrastructure. Well-lit streets, obstacle-free pavements, safe public toilets and mixed-use neighbourhoods are presented as essential design features that enable women’s participation in urban life. The second stream addresses services and amenities, highlighting the need for childcare facilities, housing for single women, and access to affordable health care. Recognising and redistributing care work across communities, markets and the state is seen as a cornerstone of an equitable city. The third stream targets mobility and public transport. Women’s complex travel patterns, shaped by care duties and multiple destinations, require safe, affordable and well-connected systems. Gender-disaggregated data and inclusive recruitment policies in the transport sector are proposed as practical tools for change. The fourth stream concerns responses to gender-based violence, emphasising the implementation of existing laws, the establishment of crisis hubs, and public campaigns that reshape social attitudes. The She RISES framework is both analytical and operational. It is intended for planners, policy makers and urban managers who aim to embed gender sensitivity into every layer of urban governance. The report also serves as a reminder that the care economy is not peripheral but foundational to the functioning of cities. Safetipin, the social enterprise behind this work, has been collecting and analysing safety data in more than forty-five cities across Asia, Africa and Latin America. Their evidence confirms that cities designed with care in mind not only improve safety for women but also strengthen social cohesion and economic resilience for all. #GenderEquality #UrbanDevelopment #InclusiveCities #UrbanPlanning #PublicSpace #CaringCities

🩺 Women live longer—but in poorer health. Why?   Because the system still sees “women’s health” as only fertility or menopause. But cardiovascular disease, autoimmune disorders, cognitive decline—these all impact women differently or disproportionately. 📉 In 2024, just 6% of VC healthtech funding went to femtech. Only 8% of NIH research dollars targeted women’s health. That’s not just an oversight—it’s a missed opportunity. 📈 A new report from Accenture and Springboard Enterprises, 2025 State of Women’s Health calls for a fundamental shift in how we define and fund women’s health. When we invest in inclusive research and innovation, everyone benefits: lower healthcare costs, higher productivity, longer healthier lives not just for women. 💡 As Alice Zheng of Foreground Capital, a venture capital firm, puts it: “There’s opportunity in almost every place you look.” And as Alisa Wilson, PhD of Accenture says: “It all starts with awareness and funding.” 🚨 It’s time to stop thinking small and start funding the full spectrum of women’s health. That includes heart disease, brain health, and everything tied to hormonal changes across a woman’s lifespan. 👉 Read my latest Forbes article to learn how reframing the issue to include conditions that affect women diproportately and differently can unlock $1 trillion in global value by 2040. 🔗https://lnkd.in/eCBfiVpW Alisa Wilson, PhD Miranda Ewald   #WomensHealth #HealthcareInnovation #Femtech #VC #HealthEquity #Forbes #ImpactInvesting #PublicHealth #Forbes

This is the question we kept coming back to in our latest research at Shape Talent Ltd, where we surveyed over 2,300 women in the UK to better understand the persistent barriers to gender equality in corporate life. The data was stark: 🔹 98% of women face some combination of systemic barriers 🔹 Women in senior roles are more likely to feel undermined, inadequate, and cautious about speaking up 🔹 The ‘double burden’ of paid and unpaid work remains relentless and largely invisible 🔹 And the pressure to walk a narrow behavioural tightrope - the “double bind” - is alive and well But here’s what struck me most: these barriers are not just frustrating, they are predictable. They’re the result of outdated systems, norms and leadership models that still reflect a version of the workplace built around a 1950s archetype: the male breadwinner with a stay-at-home wife. It’s no wonder that are survey results showed that women, especially Black women, LGBTQ+ women, disabled women, and working mothers, continue to face uphill battles. The data shows their challenges aren’t just individual. They’re structural. And they’re compounded by bias and a chronic lack of meaningful career development. We cannot ‘fix’ women to fit into broken systems. We must fix the system. So, what next? 1. Rethink leadership expectations 2. Redesign processes with equity in mind 3. Build cultures of true psychological safety 4. Invest intentionally in women’s career development Incremental change is no longer enough. The pace of progress is glacial – and regressing. At this rate, gender equality won’t be reached until 2154. That’s five generations too late. If you're in a position of influence - HR, DEI, leadership, it’s time to move from intent to impact. Real progress starts with bold steps. #GenderEquality #Leadership #Equity #Inclusion #ShapeTalent #DoubleBurden #DoubleBind #WomenInLeadership #Intersectionality #EDI #DEI

When you think of a farmer you think of a man. However, in Indian agriculture 80% of farm work is undertaken by women. But support for farmers still has gender barriers. The Food and Agriculture Organisation notes that on average, women-run farms produce 20% - 30% less than farms run by men resulting in a crop gap. Addressing these gender specific barriers in farming is crucial to leverage the vast potential that women farmers hold of contributing to economic growth. Women can be agents of change in ushering in climate smart agriculture. Capitalising on women’s role in agriculture and within their households can be a gamechanger in ensuring the uptake of sustainable agriculture. If you look at a farming household in rural India, women are involved from planting the seeds to the harvesting. It makes sense then to engage with the women farmers on adopting practices like drip irrigation, intercropping and mulching. This is exactly what we did at our farmer training programmes Godrej Agrovet Limited. We work in close quarters with the women in the community on training them in adopting sustainable agricultural practices through the implementation of initiatives like forming SHG’s, and farmer field groups among others. With women farmers we can shift our lens towards making agriculture as a profit-making sustainable sector that can build a robust and resilient food system.

India’s Economy Has a Missing Engine: Women Especially women from lower-income backgrounds. A McKinsey study estimated that India could add $770 billion to GDP by 2025 by simply advancing gender parity in work. But instead, female labor force participation fell from 32% (2005) to ~20% (2020). https://lnkd.in/dvys4E6f Despite progress in some areas, female labor force participation in India is among the lowest in the world, even lower than some Sub-Saharan African countries. Why Are So Many Poor Women Underemployed or Not Properly Utilized? 1. Social and Cultural Barriers • Deep-rooted patriarchy restricts women’s mobility, especially in rural or conservative areas. • Girls are often seen as temporary earners, their “real role” is expected to be at home. 2. Safety and Mobility • Public transport is unsafe or unavailable, making it harder for women to travel to work. • Fear of harassment, especially in cities or during night shifts, keeps families from letting women work. 3. Unpaid Labor at Home • Women spend hours daily doing unpaid work: cooking, cleaning, child care, elder care. • This invisible labor is neither recognized nor redistributed. • Poor women, in particular, bear the double burden of poverty and gendered expectation. 4. Lack of Suitable Jobs - There is no structured pathway from informal to formal employment. 5. Policy & Structural Failure • Skill development programs often don’t reach women or are too generic and disconnected from market realities. • No large-scale, nationwide push for rural women entrepreneurship, decentralized production, or employment guarantees for women. • Schemes exist, but access is broken due to middlemen, corruption, or lack of information. Poor women: • Walk miles for water • Raise children with limited resources • Cook without clean fuel • Manage micro-budgets like CFOs of households Yet the system never sees them as ‘employable’ or ‘productive’. What Can Change This? 1. Localized employment: Bring dignified work to villages (e.g., food processing, crafts, decentralised manufacturing). 2. Safe, affordable transport: So women can commute without fear. 3. Women-led cooperatives and micro-enterprises: Let women own their work, not just participate. 4. Recognition of unpaid work: Design policies around time poverty, not just joblessness. 5. Mindset shift: From “allowing” women to work to realizing they hold the key to national growth. We talk of “demographic dividend” but leave half the population on the sidelines. A country that sidelines its women isn’t just unjust, it is chronically underperforming.

Indigenous Peoples are often key agents of change in climate action. Their environmental stewardship reaches at least 36% of the world’s intact forests. Yet, they are often excluded from decision-making in climate policies and negotiations. There can be no true climate action without recognizing and protecting Indigenous knowledge and practices. As we head to #COP29, let’s remember that Indigenous Peoples' traditional knowledge and practices can offer many solutions to the climate crisis. Learn more in our explainer: https://go.undp.org/4m3

In a world where women’s rights are often contested, the Wodaabe tribe stands as a remarkable example of a society where women hold significant stature. The Wodaabe, an indigenous group in West Africa, is based on a matriarchal culture where women’s autonomy and decision-making are deeply respected. In Wodaabe society, women have the freedom to choose their partners, and their voices are pivotal in community decisions. This empowerment of women challenges the pervasive stereotypes that label indigenous peoples as "savage" or "uncivilized." The Wodaabe's practices underscore that indigenous cultures can and do uphold women's rights, offering a profound lesson in gender equality. As we advocate for gender equity globally, we should draw inspiration from these matriarchal traditions and recognize the wisdom and balance they bring to their communities. #IndigenousRights #GenderEquality #MatriarchalSociety #CulturalRespect #Wodaabe #WomensEmpowerment

My article in The Quint. “Societal norms and cultural messages often reinforce the idea that men are the primary breadwinners and public figures, while women are primarily responsible for domestic duties. When women challenge these traditional roles, it can disrupt deeply ingrained patriarchal beliefs. The case in Kolkata seems even more nuanced as it is an example of greed, corruption and crimes playing out over a woman’s body because she “dared” to question. We of course don’t know the truth yet. Whatever it is, the answer is to let women fill theses spaces. We shall double down on our work on shifting social norms so that more and more girls feel empowered to step up, seek out the world and work outside of homes, have dreams and aspirations of careers that help them be seen out there, playing, relaxing, taking buses, entering markets, eating in restaurants, giving political speeches in crowded chowks; being doctors, engineers, pilots, wrestlers, plumbers, ward councillors in large numbers. We have to equip our girls with a strong sense of self, of being masters of their own decisions and lives. We have to train institutions to provide safety nets and implement in all sincerity laws on sexual harassment in workplaces, provide services that help women seek stigma-free, and essential mental health counselling at workplaces. We have to make sure police procedures are free from corruption along with swift and accurate investigations and meting out sentences take priority. And lastly, we have to train men on how to treat their female colleagues as equals, with respect and how to ask for consent before they can pay random innuendoed compliments. Only then, “into that heaven of freedom,” will the women of my country thrive.” #genderequality #genderequity #norms #masculinity #violenceagainstwomen #genderbasedviolence