#55 – Reykjavik Global Forum: How Does the Rising Cost of Living Impact Gender Equality?

Lightning round. In this week’s Coffee Talk, Henrike von Platen and Margrét Bjarnadóttir talk about the Reykjavik Global Forum – Women Leaders, which was held in Reykjavík on November 13-14, 2023. At the Forum, each session was short—and Henrike moderated an 18-minute session with four panelists on a particularly urgent topic: The rising cost of living.

Reykjavik Global Forum 2023

A panel of four significant leaders took part in the session:

Ulrik Vestergaard Knudsen, Deputy Secretary-General, OECD
Ebony Young, Deputy Borough President, Queens, City of New York
Christina McKelvie, Minister for Culture, Europe and International Development, Scottish Government
Dagur B. Eggertsson, Mayor of Reykjavík

The session focused on three main, burning questions—asked and answered at lightning speed:

How is the rising cost of living impacting women?
What are the broader societal implications of gender equality in this environment?
What policies and actions can be enacted—like equal pay or parental leave—to improve conditions?

Each participant had one minute to answer each of these three questions, describing the approaches their countries and organizations have taken, and can take, to address a problem of such a massive scale.

Women have felt the impact of global inflation the most; they already have lower wages, made worse by increased costs. If fair pay and measures to support the care economy were to become the norm, and we realized Planet Fair, real lives would improve immeasurably. The economy can begin to heal, to equalize, under these conditions. But policies only go so far.

In another notable session, Icelandic Businesswomen: Successes and Challenges, Henrike learned that sentiment about women in positions of power, particularly young women, has worsened. The panel consisted of six women whose journeys to director and C-level positions were, in general, non-linear and whose backgrounds were very diverse:

Iða Brá Benediktsdóttir, Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Arion Bank
Tanya Zharov, Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Alvotech
Kristín Linda Árnadóttir, Deputy Chief Executive, Landsvirkjun
Arna Grímsdóttir, EVP, Legal Affairs, HS Orka
Halla Hrund Logadóttir, Director-General, Iceland's National Energy
Sylvía Kristín Ólafsdóttir, Chief Operating Officer, Icelandair
Chaired by Þóra Arnórsdóttir, Director of Communications, Landsvirkjun

Surrounded by so many accomplished, gifted leaders, how can we encourage trust of these extraordinary women?

In part, Henrike posits, by leading by example.

Watch the Coffee Talk below to learn Henrike’s key takeaways from these two excellent panels!

To watch Henrike’s session, surf over to http://reykjavikforum.global and watch day one, starting at 5:16:00.

Friday Coffee Talk from Planet Fair is a podcast/videocast series co-hosted by PayAnalytics founder Margrét Bjarnadóttir and Henrike Von Platen, founder and CEO of the FPI Fair Pay Innovation Lab in Berlin. It is available through all podcast platforms as well as on YouTube as a videocast.