How to avoid gender stereotypes: Eleanor Tabi Haller-Jordan at TEDxZurich

Corporations across Europe share the same problem: a dramatic gender gap in leadership. Although the size of this gap varies from country to country, men far outnumber women in senior business leadership. What makes the most senior positions in business so inaccessible to women -- even in countries where there is considerable government and social support for gender equality? Senior women leaders across Western Europe tell us that gender stereotyping is an important barrier to consider; and our research supports it. While solutions are often sought through policy and engineered approaches, the real barriers to change may be much more personal and insidious. The companies that focus on tackling deep-seated bias and making their organizations safer for mavericks -- who are less concerned with fitting in and more on making a contribution -- may be the most effective in fixing the gender gap and, more critically, in business.

Eleanor Tabi Haller-Jorden has led Catalyst Europe since 2006, when it was established to work with corporate and academic members in Europe through thought-provoking events and programs that reflect the cultural diversity of the region. Under her direction, Catalyst Europe engages members and selects partners who are committed to developing creative solutions around organizational inclusion and innovation with the aim of being a learning lab that supports workplace innovation by practicing it. Apart from her European responsibilities, Eleanor Tabi Haller-Jorden holds a broader advisory role within Catalyst with a focus on developing the organization and its brand globally.

A frequent media contributor and lecturer (IMD, London School of Economics and Political Science, Yale School of Organization and Management, Columbia University Business School), Eleanor Tabi Haller-Jorden also sits on numerous boards. She is Chairperson of the The Humanity Initiative's Executive Board and Co-Chair of the Healthcare Businesswomen's Association (HBA) European Board. Other board appointments include: the EU's Steering Scientific Committee, Seventh Framework Programme, Meta-analysis for Gender and Science Research; the Academy of Business and Society and Öko-Institut's Advisory Board for the IMPACT initiative; and the Advisory Board of the Tosca Group Future of Organisations Consortium. Eleanor Tabi Haller-Jorden has been designated a European Thought Leader on behalf of IBM's Global Innovation Outlook initiative and showcased in Profiles in Diversity Journal. Most recently, she has been appointed as a Leadership Advisor for the Zurich chapter of Room to Read, a global organization focused on literacy and gender equality in education.

Before joining Catalyst Europe, Eleanor Tabi Haller-Jorden worked in cross-cultural talent management and strategic planning as the Managing Director of the Paradigm Group. Prior to that, she was Founder and Director of the Public Policy Center in Philadelphia. She is also a former Vice President of the Advisory Services group at Catalyst. She attended Princeton University as an advanced standing scholar and Bryn Mawr College, where she earned her A.B. magna cum laude in history. She earned her M.Sc. in Industrial Relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science. Eleanor Tabi Haller-Jorden is a single mother of two boys and an avid windsurfer. In her spare time, she is a performance poet—an entertainer who creates poetry onstage—and has performed in Zurich, Oslo, and London. She is the owner of the Living Gallery, a virtual art space and gallery in Switzerland.

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)