Natalya Kaspersky presented on the topic of women in business. She noted that while women make up over 50% of middle and low level managers in Russia, they only account for 3-5% of top level managers. Kaspersky questioned whether companies should purposefully increase the number of women in business and impose quotas. She argued that doing so could lead to more unhappy women with fewer children and growing issues like an aging population. Kaspersky concluded that enforcing "equality" through quotas may decrease business competitiveness and prioritize ideology over true professionals and expertise.

1. Women in Business.
Do we need more of
them?
Natalya Kaspersky
Co-founder of Kaspersky Lab,
CEO of InfoWatch Group of companies
CeBIT Glodal Conferences 2012, Hannover

2. About myself:
A co-founder of Kaspersky Lab, the
#4 world antivirus vendor
1997-2011 – CEO and Chairman of
Kaspersky Lab (2500 people, €500M
annual revenue)
CEO of InfoWatch, software
developer of data leakage pevention
for enterprise
Investor in 5 other IT and Internet
companies
A member of Board of Directors of the
German-Russian chamber of
commerce
A mother of 4 children

3. Female management in Russia
 At the top level ~3-5%
 At middle and low levels > 50%
 Up to 43% of managers
Is it good or bad? Should anything
be done about it?

4. Women in business - questions
Should companies purposefully increase
number of women in business?
Should quotas on women participation in
business help the business growth and
competitiveness?
What should we expect from increasing
number of businesswomen?
Business factors

5. Private Life Factors
Carrier influence Male Female
on:
Family position Career helps his marital Business success often
status and happy family leaves her less time and
life desire for the family
Number of children More Less
Children in family Will be raised by their Will be raised by nannies
mother or relatives
Life satisfaction The higher position – The higher position – the
the higher is personal lower is personal life
life satisfaction satisfaction
“Some 90% of executive men but only 35% of
executive women have children by the age of 40”
Harvard Business Review, Management Women and the New Facts of Life.

6. Career and Life Satisfaction:
Men vs Women
8
Life Satisfaction
7
6
5
4 Women
3
Men
2
1
0
Level of Career + Age

7. Socio-Economic Factors in Germany
1. Aging population
 Germany's working-age population is likely to
decrease 30% over next 40 years (Berlin Institute
for Population Development)
 20% of 82 million German inhabitants are now
aged 65. This number will increase to 33% by
2060 (the Federal Statistics Office)

8. Socio-Economic Factors
2. Birth rate decrease
 1990 - 1.5 children per German mother; 2010 - 1.38
children per mother
 Germany's population of 82 million could drop by up to
17 million over the next 50 years
 651,000 children were born in Germany in 2009 —
30,000 (3,6%) fewer than in 2008
 Germany has the longest history of low fertility in
Europe (Goldstein's research)
3. Increasing number of migrants
 Migrants along with their children born in Germany
represent ~20% of German population
* Source: The Federal Statistics Office

9. Business Factors
Competition is increasing
Business work bring more stress and a need for tough
decisions
Globalization of business demands more travelling and
24*7*365 online involvement
High demand for (and lack of) high qualified specialists
In IT-business – good technology
understanding, continuous study
The reality is the men in average are stronger and
more eager IT managers than women

10. Some thoughts on quotas
Why there is no quotas for women in:
Profession, sport Possible reason:
 Marines troops [strength, aggression?]
 Basketball teams [weight, height, speed?]
 Corrida [reaction, strength?]
 Ping-pong teams [reaction, what?]
 Chess teams [what???]
 Programming [what???]
Why there is no quotas for men in:
 Nursery [patience, scrutiny]
 Birth giving [what???]

11. My Conclusions
Artificial increasing of female representation in
business will lead to:
For personal life:
 More unhappy women
 Fewer number of happy families
For the economy:
 Growing problem of aging population
 Further decrease of the birth rate
For business
 Decrease of business competitiveness
 Lack of true professionals in favor to the
ideology of ―equality‖
Do we really need it?
Is the ideology of the enforced “equality” more
important?

12. Thank you for your time!
Questions?
Natalya Kaspersky
Co-founder of Kaspersky Lab,
CEO of InfoWatch Group of companies
www.infowatch.com
www.egosecure.com