Thrive was the word of the day at the Women’s Leadership Luncheon at the Biennial of the Americas Festival last Wednesday.

The luncheon featured a panel moderated by Alicia Menendez, anchor of FUSION’s “Come Here and Say That,” and included Patricia Milligan, senior partner and global leader for Mercer, and Danielle Saint-Lot, ambassador-at-large for the Republic of Haiti and founder of the Haiti Women’s Foundation.

The two discussed how to help women thrive, both in the workforce and in developing countries, such as Haiti.

Mercer, which sponsored the event, has studied the financial wellbeing and health of more than 700,000 women who work for organizations around the world.

“The struggle I see is, we’re studying a lot,” Milligan said. “The research we did was not about studying, it was about changing and acting.”

Businesses and governments should be looking at women in a more holistic manner, the research showed, rather than through particular lenses, such as education or entering the workforce.

“A lot of the work that great companies do is around [women’s] careers and their talent,” she said. “But one of the biggest limits for women is actually access to the health care system, access to education and a real fear of financial risk.”

Saint Lot said that in Haiti, which has the greatest disparity between rich and poor in the Western Hemisphere, the key is financial security.

Much of her work is focused on what she calls the “missing middle,” creating a middle class in Haiti, where most of the economy is informal. Small enterprise businesses can help improve the country’s economy, she said.

Only now, with a new more stable, less corrupt government, are outside investors willing to bring capital into Haiti, she said. Women can be key to this effort, she added, because they tend to be less corrupted.

“There’s a big role for women to play in the informal society, getting these workers in and organized,” Milligan said.

While many American companies tout the number of women on their executive teams, there’s no “next generation” of women to eventually take their place, Milligan noted. Both panelists said American companies can learn lessons from successful efforts in Latin America and Europe.

“We’re just a mess when it comes to taking care of the whole women and the whole man and the family,” Milligan said.

Mexico’s Director General of Culture and Educational Affairs, Lizbeth Galvan, who helped put together the Biennial’s art exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, also addressed the luncheon.

“Women have, throughout history, been lauded as subjects of art,” she said. “Canada, the United States and Mexico have always had revolutionary women making art.”

The exhibit at MCA Denver features artists from throughout the hemisphere and is open to the public through August.

– rachel@coloradostatesman.com

Photo by Jennifer Goodland