Women-only slate to chair elite 2018 World Economic Forum in Davos

Donna Leinwand Leger | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption World Economic Forum asks seven women to lead Davos 2018 and zero men For the first time in 47 years, the World Economic Forum’s gathering in Davos, Switzerland will be chaired entirely by women.

The World Economic Forum's gathering in Davos, Switzerland will be chaired entirely by women in 2018 — the first time in the 47-year history of the elite group that men will be on the sidelines.

Seven women – and no men – will set the agenda when 3,000 of the world's high-powered corporate, political, entrepreneurial and media leaders converge on the alpine town in January.

The World Economic Forum, or Davos, as it's known by its participants, has taken heat for years for its stark gender imbalance. At this year's conference, men outnumbered women five to one. That's a nudge up from 2015, when women accounted for 17% of the participants.

What is Davos?

The forum's announcement Monday of its seven co-chairs, including International Monetary Fund managing director Christine Lagarde, IBM CEO Ginni Rometty and Prime Minister Erna Solberg of Norway, made no mention of the historic all-female slate.

Instead, the organization noted the co-chairs would "lend a strong voice to all parts of society, ensuring a multistakeholder approach" to the meeting, which opens Jan. 23 in Davos.

The gathering, which began in 1971 as a small academic, economic and management conference chaired by Klaus Schwab, a German-born business professor at the University of Geneva, now draws CEO, celebrities, monarchs and intellectuals representing 100 countries.

Where the heck is Davos? What the Heck is Davos? Davos is one of Switzerland's largest ski resorts, and in mid-January, the town plays hosts to the World Economic Forum's annual winter conference.

Instead of economics, the global power brokers meet, discuss and seek to solve the world's most intractable problems. The 2018 theme is "creating a shared future in a fractured world."

In addition to Lagarde, Rometty and Solberg, the other co-chairs are: Sharan Burrow, general-secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation, the world's largest trade union; Fabiola Gianotti, director-general, European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN); Isabelle Kocher, CEO of ENGIE, and Chetna Sinha, founder of the Mann Deshi Bank, which provides microfinance to women in India.

Davos fail: Not enough women USA TODAY Editor-In-Chief David Callaway and breaking news editor Donna Leinwand Leger discuss day three of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.









