Written by Anna Lithagen, the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth

Be a leader, wherever you are, and pay it forward to the next generation of leaders!

What are ‘the Golden Rules of Leadership’?

Globally, there is a lack of representation of women in leadership roles in both the private and public sectors. Whether on corporate boards, in senior-level management positions, as entrepreneurs, or other important economic decision-making roles, women represent a much smaller percentage of leadership positions than their economic contribution, education levels, and business successes would indicate.

To change this, the International Council on Women’s Business Leadership, initiated by and under the leadership of U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, was formed. Members of the Council were international world leaders representing public and private sector organizations and institutions with an interest in increasing the leadership role of women in international business and economic policy.

One of the deliverables of the Subcommittee on Leadership was ‘The Golden Rules of Leadership’. They were presented to Clinton and the members of the Council and its Subcommittees in November 2012. Many of the members pledged to follow the rules – paying it forward to the next generation of leaders.

Throughout the work of the Leadership subcommittee, facilitated by Anna Lithagen of the program ‘Promoting Women’s Entrepreneurship’ at the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth, we had the honor of collaborating closely together with Cherie Blair and Henriette Kolb of the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women – who share the same vision and cause to create sustainable economic growth, through women’s entrepreneurship, in our local communities, regionally, nationally and globally.

Just as the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women puts its focus on mentorship, the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth has pivotal advocates and role-models in the 900 Swedish Ambassadors for Women’s Entrepreneurship.

Why sign the pledge?

The aim is for the initiative to spread to as many leaders as possible globally and to collectively give future women leaders better access to role-models, networks, mentorship, and a head-start to good leadership practices. By increasing the possibilities for more women to reach leadership positions, we strive towards creating sustainable economic growth and bridge the leadership gap world-wide and therefore pledge to:

1. Share my network with rising women leaders
   Make it possible for more women to take on leadership positions as managers, experts, entrepreneurs, chairpersons and board members
2. Actively promote women as role models
   Emphasize the importance of women’s leadership and entrepreneurship both in my daily work and through public platforms.
3. Endorse and make women leaders more visible
   Create professional opportunities for rising future leaders by opening doors through mentorship and sponsorship, which in return will inspire next generations and pay it forward.

We encourage you to support women’s entrepreneurship and leadership worldwide, starting here, with a pledge to consistently and persistently follow ‘the Golden Rules of Leadership’ to provide women and men with the same opportunities to reach leadership positions through an open and generous approach.

Sign the Golden Rules of Leadership pledge, here!

Written by Danna Harman

This was originally published in Haaretz.

When Cherie Blair was still Cherie Booth, 22 years old and studying to become a barrister at the London School of Economics, she found herself competing for a law firm vacancy against a fellow student − a guy. “Everyone agreed that I was the better candidate and would make a better lawyer,” she says matter-of-factly. “Including him.”

It was 1976, the sex discrimination act had just been passed, and there were finally a scattering of women raising their voices as barristers. And yet, recalls Blair, it was still common for firms to tell women straight out that “we don’t take women,” or, if they were very progressive, that, sorry, they had “already” hired one. Not surprisingly, she shrugs, it was the guy who got the coveted slot.

“It turned out to be a bad bet,” continues Blair, 58, who was visiting Israel this week to receive an honorary doctorate from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. “Because as it happened, he did not stick around in law for very long. He left and went into politics.”

Indeed, the guy − a handsome Oxford graduate and amateur rocker named Tony Blair, who not only stole Cherie’s job, but also nabbed her heart − went on to become head of the Labor party in Britain, leading them to a landslide victory in the 1997 elections and then serving as that country’s prime minister until 2007.

Cherie, soon a Blair herself, dutifully followed her husband along his political path, supporting him right into 10 Downing Street, where she proceeded to spend a decade hosting foreign dignitaries for dinner, organizing tea parties for local charities and generally throwing herself into the role of first lady. This, while bringing up the couple’s four children, the youngest of whom, Leo, was the first child to be born to a sitting prime minister in 150 years. And, unlike her husband, she stuck it out as a lawyer, too.

Blair co-founded her own chambers, which specializes in human rights law and where she continued to practice through her time as first lady − “rushing upstairs after tea with the spouse of the president of Tanzania, or some other president, to return to my computer and my clients,” as she puts it. Blair also serves as a part-time judge, is an accredited mediator and a human rights and women’s rights activist.

And, just because she was not busy enough, in 2008 Blair set up the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women − to help women in developing and emerging markets around the world “build businesses, contribute to their economies and have a stronger voice in their societies.”

Worldwide, attitudes towards women in the workforce − and in general − have clearly changed since her 22-year-old self was out there trying to get her first job at a law firm, Blair will be the first to acknowledge. But, she stresses, this does not mean there are no barriers for women. “They may now be informal, often unconscious,” she says, “but they exist nevertheless.”

Women are twice as likely to live in poverty as men. Two out of three illiterate adults are women − and a staggering few of them own property. Less than two percent of the titled land in the world is owned by women, Blair says. “The consequences of this are devastating − not only for the individual women but for the whole society,” she argues.

While she is a woman of the law, Blair says she decided to focus her foundation’s work on empowering women in business, instead of fighting the law on their behalf − so that they could stand up for what they need themselves. “I would rather help women help themselves − by giving them the economic independence to find their voices,” she tells Haaretz. “They will then use those voices to agitate for changes in the law. They will be able to decide what is right for their countries.”

The foundation, working with implementing partners on the ground, is guided by this philosophy − and has supported tens of thousands of women with the skills, technology, mentors, networks and access to markets they need to find, and raise, their voices. The foundation has projects across Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East − including several successful programs in Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

An ‘interesting’ country

Israel, says Blair, is an “interesting” country to work in, as, on one hand, it is a highly developed nation known for entrepreneurship and innovation, in which more and more women are both getting educated and setting up successful businesses every year. But at the same time, because of religion and culture, there are pockets within Israel − like some of the orthodox Jewish, Muslim and Druze communities − in which women are still all but excluded from the workforce.

One program of her foundation here, run in partnership with Western Galilee College in Acre, has developed a comprehensive economics and management degree program to develop women’s entrepreneurial skills. Another project, in Beit Shemesh, funded in partnership with Saban Women’s Self-Worth Foundation, focuses on supporting Jewish and Arab women entrepreneurs with micro enterprises − by providing business incubation services, access to capital and peer-to-peer networks.

A third project, also funded by Saban and run in conjunction with the Economic Empowerment for Women and the Koret Israel Economic Development Fund, helps over 100 women from Jerusalem’s marginalized communities with access to finance and networks. And a project with the Business Development Center in Ramallah, meanwhile, provides tailored business training, marketing and financial advice to women there.

“I learned an important lesson when I was eight,” says Blair, turning personal and telling the story of how, when she was a child, her father, British actor Tony Booth, abandoned her mother − leaving her to take care of their two young daughters, Cherie and her younger sister Lyndsey, on her own. “Mom had left school at 14, and given up her career as an actress to support his career, so you can imagine that when she was left with zero, she was faced with a very difficult task,” says Blair. “I realized then how vulnerable one is without the ability to stand on one’s own two feet.”

The searing experience pushed her to the work she does today, she concludes. For she managed to find feet to stand tall on, and lead a life, as she says, that her mother and grandmother could only have dreamed of − and from those heights, she is now reaching out to help other women find their way too.

This is a video created by YangYang Tao, a mentee in the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women’s Mentoring Women in Business Programme. Here she recounts her journey through the programme with her mentor Safiye, and the experiences that they shared together.

With thanks to YangYang for creating this amazing video, to Safiye for being such a great mentor, and to both for sharing their story with us all.

Read YangYang’s story in a three-part blog series, beginning here.

You can read more about the Mentoring Women in Business Programme here.

This is the last of a three-part blog series, written by YangYang Tao from China, a mentee in the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women’s Mentoring Women in Business Programme. The programme connects highly skilled professional with women business owners around the world over an online platform powered by Google. Here YangYang recounts her personal journey through her mentoring relationship.

Translation by Linda Yi and Jessica Naish

This was originally published on Business Fights Poverty.

Dumpling Dreams was previously just an “idea”, but over the past year became an implementable and actionable plan. After I returned from the UK, my mentor and I firstly needed to brainstorm about how to raise the start-up capital necessary to put this dream into motion.

December 2012: Lenovo group launched their “For Those Who Do” venture capital contest. I submitted an idea I had originally developed with a colleague Jessica, and shared it with my mentor – and thus the Dumplings Dreams Project officially began. The first round was a fierce competition between 30 different projects and organizations. My mentor told me that she was very happy to be able to experience, through me, what it was like to be in a competition like this in China. She was interested in learning about the other organizations participating in this project, and found it a as an eye-opening experience.

January 2013: I’ve just received notice, saying that “Dumpling Dreams” has made it to the top 15, out of whom the final 10 will be chosen by the end of the month. Again, I began to feel very anxious. Thousands of miles away, my mentor could sense my distress. She called me directly, and then afterwards, two more times during those last few weeks of January. During our conversations, we discussed my plans for Dumpling Dreams and went over the rules and requirements of the competition. Even though she was incredibly busy with her own work, she was never perfunctory or impatient with me. She listened to the questions I posed, soaking in all that which was unfamiliar to her, seeking to understand that which was different to her daily environment. She never jumped to conclusions. And after I was done speaking, she always analyzed and discussed the problem with me in a way that surpassed our geographical limitations. In this way, her support to me has never wavered.

At the end of the month, I received the amazing news the organization that I work with, Hua Dan, won the competition. Dumpling Dreams went from being a simple idea, to being an actionable plan, and now it has received its first start-up capital. Even after I had won the competition, I continued to get messages from my mentor; I could feel her joy, her happiness for me. What I would give to cut my trophy in half and send it to her!

The next month was the final month of our mentoring relationship with the programme and Spring Festival here in China. I received an email from the Cherie Blair Foundation, reminding us to write down our feedback and evaluation of the mentorship program we’d participated in, as well as give recommendations for the future.

I’m sitting in my room when my mother walks in. I turn to her and say: “I want to tell you a story”. And then I begin. I tell her, from beginning to end, all that has happened between my mentor and me. When I am finished, mom looks at me and says: “Why don’t you write the story that you’ve just told me down? It is a beautiful journey and what lovely memories you and your mentor have created!” And indeed, having such a mentor – and dear friend – on the other end of the earth, supporting me, always supporting me, made me feel as if the world is not so big after all.

Of course, this wonderful learning process has not been without its challenges. Because of the time difference between us, there were moments when we couldn’t find a suitable time to speak. Due to poor internet connection, many conversations that were filled with promise and excitement ended in disappointment and incompletion. Because of our jobs, we were frequenting shuffling back and forth between different geographical locations; for her, she moved from country to country and for me, city to city. Occasionally, due to a sudden emergency, one or the other of us would have to cancel our conversation at the last minute.

However, it is precisely because of these challenges, that we’ve come to better understand each other and that we’ve come to a better understanding of each other’s way of life, each other’s work rhythm. And it was because of these challenges that deepened our trust in each other. In an age when internet connectivity pulls our voices and locations closer, yet often does not help with the growing gap between our hearts, this mentorship program has not only allowed me to develop and grow in my professional life, but has also impressed upon me a new understanding of the capacity of relationships between people, bringing to my concept of “relationships” a new and positive definition.

My Dumplings Dreams cultural exchange performance plan has come a long way from its seed as an idea when I started the mentoring prorgramme. Step by step, it has begun its journey towards a realizable goal with all my wonderful colleagues in China and new collaborators in the UK. Throughout this process, my mentor has not been someone constantly checking in one me, but rather someone observing with a concerned eye and offering insightful and helpful suggestions. She reminded me of what I was doing and what I was capable of. She helped me dare to dream more, learn more, do more, and also hope that I can become better. Also, by being mentored myself, I have learned how to mentor others and accompany other women and youth to find their path in life. Perhaps this is what empowerment is…

When I hit upon the seemingly impossible, there was someone who showed me – through her actions – that “someone is rooting for you at the other end of the world and helping you achieve your dream”. And thus, many things that before seemed impossible became possible. And the person who helped me through this process was her, my mentor, Safiye.

This is the second of a three-part blog series, written by YangYang Tao from China, a mentee in the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women’s Mentoring Women in Business Programme. The programme connects highly skilled professional with women business owners around the world over an online platform powered by Google. Here YangYang recounts her personal journey through her mentoring relationship.

Translation by Linda Yi and Jessica Naish

This was originally posted on Business Fights Poverty.

At the same time I met my mentor, I came across a potential study abroad opportunity in the UK, the “China-UK Arts Management Professional Development Programme” run by the British Council. The programme fit perfectly with the type of work I was doing. Until then, I had never been abroad. If selected, I would be able to study in Britain for nearly two months, an opportunity and experience which I would treasure enormously. I set out to apply.

April 2012: Preparing for my interview with the British Council, I was swimming in a torrential downpour of work and travel requirements. My heart was convulsive and very chaotic. I wrote a long email to my mentor, repeating several times, “What if I can’t do this…what if I can’t make this happen?” She responded to me saying only, “I will call you tomorrow”. The next day, the call came at the pre-arranged time. I still remember seeing her on the computer screen, a pair of firm but gentle eyes looking at me. She said, “YangYang, let’s focus on how to make things happen. What can we do to prevent these, ‘what ifs’ to make you feel like this is something you can – as opposed to can’t – do?” She almost never directly told me what to do. Instead, she would pose questions, many of them inspiring and thought-provoking. Under the guidance of her questions, I began to think about the next steps: how I could do better, how to more comprehensively prepare. The day of my interview, she sent me a text message: “Good luck to you, I am waiting for you in the UK”. With her blessing, I started the interview process.

In May I received a letter, a formal notification that I was selected to go to the UK. I could hardly believe it. In three months, I would be sitting with my mentor, talking directly to her face to face. I would always say to her, what an “amazing and mysterious force this is”, but she would respond that all of this was the result of my efforts.

In early September, my trip abroad began. That first week was spent in London, where I began my preparatory course of studies. It was also in that first week that I met my mentor. We decided to meet in Trafalgar Square after my class ended. Waiting for her to arrive, I felt my heart quicken. Suddenly, a woman appeared from across the corner, smiling as she walked toward me. I recognized her immediately. It was hard to be believed that nearly five months ago we were complete strangers to each other. Because of the Cherie Blair Foundation programme, these two people became not only mentor and mentee but now also friends. And now here we were, standing across from each other, face to face – a scene so incredibly surreal that even a novelist would find hard to put in to words.

Many weeks later after I completed the full course of my fellowship, I was back at Heathrow Airport. While waiting in the terminal I received a call from my mentor. She was refreshingly energetic and considerate as ever. “Have a safe trip, let me know when you’ve landed. Make sure you get some rest, and then get started on the next part of your plan. But do not worry or feel rushed, we’ll take it step-by-step and move forward that way”, she said. After we hung up, I turned off the phone and glanced around at the airport. I look at the first place I laid eyes one when I first arrived in this country and remember all the apprehension and anticipation I first felt. I turn, smiling, and step on to the plane that would carry me home.

Click here to read Part III.

This is the first of a three-part blog series, written by YangYang Tao from China, a mentee in the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women’s Mentoring Women in Business Programme. The programme connects highly skilled professional with women business owners around the world over an online platform powered by Google. Here YangYang recounts her personal journey through her mentoring relationship.

Translation by Linda Yi and Jessica Naish

This was originally posted on Business Fights Poverty.

I work at Hua Dan in Beijing and Sichuan Province which is a non-profit organization dedicated to using theatre to bring out the full potential in people, to encourage them to lead their own lives and their communities with courage, confidence and creativity. I prioritize working with and for migrant women as well as children, families and schools displaced by the Sichuan earthquake in 2008. The job has given me the opportunity to meet so many different kinds of people whose stories have made a deep impression on me as a constant reminder of the very real challenges that exist before our eyes.

I dreamt for years of performing at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland. My work at Hua Dan inspired me to start a new project with my colleagues– Dumpling Dreams – to bring stories from China to the outside world. These are perspectives that many westerners never get to hear. I wanted to share compelling stories about migrant women in China and foster links with the outside world, putting a human face on my vast country. It had been a dream for years, but I faced challenges moving it to reality. My friend sent me information about the Mentoring Women in Business Programme and said it could be helpful. It was nearly the application deadline and I was so busy at work that I almost didn’t apply, but something compelled me to go online and submit my details.

At the end of February 2012, I received an email informing me that I’d been matched with my mentor, Safiye, the microfinance director at Citigroup in London, and that we needed to contact each other as soon as possible to begin our online correspondence. After I’d finished reading the email, my first reaction was: is this even possible? The mentor I had been paired with was a stranger from the other side of the world, unfamiliar with my mother tongue, life, culture and country. To be honest, I was more nervous than excited … and even a bit skeptical about the entire endeavor. I’d even thought about whether I should reconsider participating in this project. But in the end, I still chose to give it a try. After putting it off for nearly a week, I made an appointment with my mentor, to meet for the first time, online.

March 2012: Our first online video call. We started off showing each other the scenery from outside our windows. She showed me her world, with mid-morning rain drops sliding down the window panes. I showed her the color of the city lights of my city in the night. It was a very peculiar, magical feeling. She told me that she was also a little nervous to be part of this program, as it was also her first time participating in this sort of cross-regional online mentoring program. As we spoke further, I told her of my worries, my concerns and my uncertainties. But she quickly put them all to rest as she calmly discussed them with me, one by one. Concerns are met with “actionable solutions”, she said. We talked for over two hours. It wasn’t until I turned off the computer, that I realized I still didn’t know how to pronounce her name. But, just like this, we set forth on this unknown adventure – together.

Usually you wouldn’t easily share a personal “business idea” with another, nor would you lightly speak of your own “real” life – in all its worries and imperfections – to someone else. To admit that you’re not as confident as you’d like to be, to unreservedly expose the rawest, most genuine part of yourself to another who you don’t really know, takes courage. What is more, it requires trust. This last is perhaps the most powerful part of the mentoring program: it allowed me to discover a new understanding of trust.

Our mentor-mentee relationship unfolded even more smoothly than I’d expected. In the beginning, I was worried that my questions were reckless, or that they were illogical. Before asking my questions, I’d always timidly ask: “Can I ask you this question?” or “Can I ask you to read this file?” One day, my mentor said to me: “I am happy to support you in any way I can. You are doing excellent work and I am proud that to be your mentor, do not worry about whether or not your questions are appropriate, I would like to hear them all the same.” Just like this, she helped me step out of my own limitations time and time again, until the ring I’d put around myself slowly started to widen.

I spent the summer of 2012 in the rural outskirts of Beijing, helping to lead a group of migrant children in a theatre summer camp. Although my mentor by now had heard me speak frequently about my job – through phone calls, emails etc – the fact remained that the concept of using theater in work with children and communities was difficult to measure in standard business practice. One afternoon, the children at camp were in the midst of rehearsing a dance number that was to be a part of their final performance. In two days, they were to perform their plays for their parents, the majority of whom are migrant workers in the city. Busy and fatigued, these parents had very little time to really spend with their children, so this performance was highly anticipated, both by the children themselves but also my business.

On the same day, I met with my mentor to chat at our usual pre-arranged time. This meeting, however, was different, as I was surrounded by many children – many curious children who were intrigued by what was happening on my computer. I introduced my mentor as a friend from the UK, which excited the children even more. They waved energetically to her and danced in happiness to be speaking with someone who was from the same place as this year’s Olympic Games. The children then resumed their dance rehearsal. At this point, I pointed my computer’s camera towards the dancing children. As we watched, neither I nor my mentor spoke. I didn’t know what she was thinking, but I sensed how excited she was. I had never thought that I could share, so directly, this part of my work with my mentor. And so much of what I was currently doing was a result of her support, pushing me to do my best and then trying for even better. The children were also very excited that a new friend from across the ocean was watching them dance – the entire world seemed to be linked together. Later on, my mentor said to me: “I cried that day”.

Click here to read Part II .

Written by Karishma Daswani, Mentee with the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women 

As an educated woman in India seeking financial independence, I was focused on my passion, work satisfaction and financial expectations – along with a desire to maintain work life balance. These very requirements are what gave birth to my own business – ‘FemmeHire’.

When my professional life began, scouting the internet for feel-good information about interviews, office environment, easy and quick tips on dressing, shoes and makeup became a daily norm. Long working hours substantiated the need for effective exercise as well as the importance of keeping calm with the hustle bustle.

Though work was priority, I realized that life would take on more roles in the personal sphere and professional priorities would have to work in tandem with the various roles I would play, each changing with the phase of time.

All this led to the thought that such a situation would be faced by women worldwide, so why not utilize my education in human resources and experience in recruitment to start a global work portal especially for women.

I did not nurture entrepreneurial desires until my personal and professional choices became equally important. Since I undertook work for my portal right from the idea stage to basic implementation completely on my own, getting mentoring for my business was something I considered very important, so I applied for the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women’s Mentoring Programme.

Getting mentored provided all the positive guidance that I needed as an entrepreneur – most importantly good vibes and support as I came up with ideas, changed my course of action or had a phase of scepticism.

The positivity and encouragement from my mentor, Ms Rose Fredua from the UK, helped me the most, along with the imparting of information and suggestions.

Starting from the idea stage with my mentor, mentoring helped me make FemmeHire more useful and practical. Since Rose is an IT person and my venture totally based online, ours was a perfect match. What added to the beauty and success of the mentor-mentee relationship was that being a woman, Rose completely understood the psyche of another woman who, while maintaining work-life balance, had a very important professional commitment. She several times coaxed me to relax, invest in myself, review the stringent self-made deadlines and delegate responsibility.

All this positivity and hard work got conglomerated into FemmeHire, which has evolved to become an online women-oriented workplace with a blog, a job board and a shop.

I now have a blog with articles on corporate dressing, plants that enhance productivity, Feng Shui tips for relaxation, exercises that can be done while at work, mobile apps to aid in work-life balance, how-to’s for pregnant or working mothers and a lot more.

I also created a database with work options for interns, part-time, full-time, contractual and work-from-home ladies along with a women-specific resume pool for those willing to make the most of the skills of the talented ladies.

I built an online shop that aims to do social good and has certified products created by underprivileged women for sale, to help support their livelihood and generate employment.

Starting FemmeHire very early in my professional life, I faced very personal challenges of scepticism and fears of taking a risk that could backtrack my career if it failed, not making the money my peers had started making and losing out on organizational promotional opportunities.

Yet if I had to advise a budding woman entrepreneur, it would be that if you really think your quality of life can improve by taking a risk, then go for it. However, be as precisely calculative about the time limit for self-sustenance as everyone’s situation is unique. Along with work, give time to yourself whether it is 30 minutes daily or one to two days in a week.

To share my journey with the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women is a definitive mark of achievement and a proud moment for me – one of the many reasons of gratitude that I’ve had for the Foundation since my selection almost a year back.

My mentoring experience has helped reinforce the fact that the power of self-belief combined with the power of goodness and the right guidance is a sure shot to success, as I believe FemmeHire will be.

You can check out Karishma’s business FemmeHire here, and follow her on Facebook here and Twitter here.

Written by Cherie Blair

This was originally posted on the Huffington Post.

This week saw the start of the RaiseForWomen Challenge, an initiative to help nonprofits that focus on women, gain funds and greater recognition. By raising awareness of 80 different women’s organizations across the country, the Challenge will help to highlight the many different ways in which we can invest in women.

As a lifelong advocate of women’s empowerment, I am well aware of the value of investing in women. I learned this first as a child, when I saw my mother struggle to bring up my sister and I after my father deserted us. Much later, when my husband, Tony Blair, was prime minister, I was lucky to be able to meet and talk with all kinds of women around the world, who face huge challenges on a daily basis. Despite their struggles these women were incredibly hard-working and determined to make a better life for themselves — very much like my mother, in fact — but often they lacked the right kind of support.

Inspired by this spirit I decided to set up a Foundation for Women to provide support, such as confidence building and access to finance, for women entrepreneurs in developing and emerging markets. There are so many barriers, cultural and otherwise, that prevent women from playing a full role in society. But if a woman can earn her own money by setting up and expanding her own business, she can begin fully to take charge of her life, and to take decisions for herself and her family. Financial independence brings real autonomy, and the power to say no. That’s the great prize for women.

The benefit doesn’t end there — research has demonstrated that supporting women entrepreneurs has a great knock-on effect. Unlike men, women tend to invest 90 percent of their income back into their families and communities. This means that women are not only bringing an additional income into their homes and putting food on the table, but they also have the money to send their children to school, investing in their futures too. Goldman Sachs has found that “women are now redefining markets and creating growth by focusing their spending power on … food, health care, education clothing, consumer durables and financial services.” As women further invest in their communities, they are further developing their economies and wider society as well. As Christine Lagarde so accurately stated at the recent World Economic Forum in Davos, “When women do better, economies do better.” The evidence is clear: investing in women isn’t just good ethics, it’s sound economics!

At the Foundation, we know how important the funds and donations are that we receive. We have grown tremendously over the years and now reach 60,000 women in 50 countries, a feat only made possible through the generous support of corporations, trusts, foundations and individuals who share our interest and passion in investing in women. Together we have enabled these women to become more financially empowered as individuals and thus — since money brings status — within their own communities too. There are many organizations eager to make a difference and many different ways to help women everywhere take their full place in society. For the RaiseForWomen Challenge I am making a call to action — take the time to contribute to a cause that results in positive change not just for women, but for their children and communities as well. Invest in women and everyone benefits.

While in India visiting our mobile technology project with the Vodafone Foundation in India and SEWA, Cherie spoke with CNBC-TV18 on the situation of women in the country. You can read more about the project here.

Written by Christina Wu

This was originally posted on The Story Exchange.

As a global non-profit that provides media content for women entrepreneurs online, we are sensitive to the fact that we can only reach audiences who have access to technology.

On average, approximately 25 percent fewer women than men have access to the Internet in developing countries according to a new study commissioned by Intel.

The barriers for women fall into two categories: 1) Individual factors, such as computer literacy, affordability, and knowing how to use the Internet and 2) Ecosystem factors, like availability of the Internet in the region, cultural norms and gender-sensitive policies.

Access to the web boosts women’s income potential and increases their sense of empowerment. Therefore, the report calls for doubling the number of women and girls in developing countries who are online to 1.2 billion in three years.

Thinking about some of the difficulties that entrepreneurs encounter with Internet usage globally, we asked some participants of our 1,000 Stories Campaign to share their Internet experiences in various developing countries. Here’s what we found:

India: slow, unreliable and expensive

In India, while the Internet is available in the bigger cities, the connection can be unreliable. Rita Kale, founder of MoneyChat India based in Pune, says she relies heavily on the Internet for her business, as most of the services she provides are online. “I access the computer from work, home and on my cell phone. The problem though is that you need several different connections to enjoy uninterrupted access since you cannot rely on a single carrier. This tends to get expensive.”

Shewta Chari, founder of the non-profit Toybank says on some days, a lack of connectivity can severely disrupt her work. “If I don’t have access to Internet at all, it totally upsets the rhythm of my working, most of my ‘business’ part (in our case, fund-raising) almost comes on a hold quite literally, as we have online platforms for raising funds.”

Jordan: cultural fears

In Jordan, Internet access is much more prevalent than in many other countries in the Middle East. There, the Internet can be perceived as a dangerous platform that undermines traditional values, says Nermin Fawzi Saad, founder of Handasiyat.net.

“The problem is not of how to access the internet service, it is in the people themselves, for example you may find people here who refuses to let their children use the Internet claiming that it is a service that will ruin their children’s ethics and will deviate their attitude away from our customs.

I think that they ignore the fact that emerging societies have its own benefits in shaping our children in a form that will suit the future world.”

Bolivia: fragmented access

In Bolivia access to the Internet is also limited to certain geographic areas, says Gabi Flores, founder of the social enterprise Kirah Design. That lack of access is a challenge for Flores, who says she needs to understand the global marketplace to achieve her goal of helping Bolivian artisans sell their goods abroad.

“It is very important to have access to Internet, especially because it opens you to other projects and things that are happening in other parts of the world.”

And here in the US…4 times as costly as France for a fraction of the speed!

From where I write this in New York City, Internet service is also problematic. Our office, located in the heart of SoHo experiences intermittent Internet disruptions and downloading/uploading speeds can be painfully slow.

According to Syracuse professor and author of the book, “The Fine Print,” David Cay Johnston, Americans pay four times more than the French for a slower connection. In the U.S., an Internet triple-play-package (phone, cable and Internet) costs an average of $160 per month versus in France, for $38.

Watch David Cay Johnston explain why the U.S. is going reverse on the information superhighway.

The Internet is one of the most transformative and powerful technologies available that has a wide range of application, from providing access to information for small businesses to fostering social movements. If women were able to harness the benefits of the Internet, this could not only improve their own political and socio-economic standing, but also provide a significant boost to bridging the gender gap and empowering more women.