The author, Muriel de Saint Sauveur, was on hand for a press conference to discuss her book with Chinese reporters.[Photo by Hu Zhe/Chinadaily.com.cn]

The Chinese edition of A Women’s World, a Better World was launched on May 23 at Beijing’s Page One bookstore. The author, Muriel de Saint Sauveur, was on hand for a press conference to discuss her book with Chinese reporters. During the conference she openly shared her views on several topics, most of which were related to women and women’s rights

Muriel de Saint Sauveur is the Diversity Director of Mazars Group, a company she first joined in 1993. After observing that only 9 percent of the top management positions at the company were filled with women, she was inspired to ask the question, “What would the world be like if women had the same power as men?”

In order to gain further insight into this question, over the course of 18 months, Muriel travelled to 33 countries and interviewed 100 women, 4 of whom were Chinese, asking them questions about their personal and professional lives.

The interviewees consisted of famous women in their respective countries, though not necessarily famous globally. They were chosen not only because of their accomplished careers, but also because they had the willingness to share their experiences with others.

Gender roles

The Chinese translation of the book’s title is If Women Ruled the World, however, Muriel feels that title is misleading and said,, “I don’t want a world ruled by women, neither a world ruled by men. What I expect is a world equally shared by men and women.”

Over years of observation, Muriel discovered that women today are eager to share the pleasure of creating and maintaining a family with men, however, “the traditional model of one person as the breadwinner and the other as a family caretaker should be broken, men should respect this", she stressed.

Diversity brings fortune

Apart from the different perceptions and ideas that women can contribute to companies and their leadership, Muriel has maintained that women’s involvement in social affairs can boost corporate economies. “Research suggests that if women make up 30 percent of one company’s management team, usually the company’s efficiency and profit rate would be higher than average as empowering women is not only about social fairness, it can also be reflected within layers of the economy,” she said.

Defining successful women

When asked about her definition of what is means to be a successful woman, Muriel’s answer was enlightening: "a successful woman is someone who understands her life and the world she lives in. Whether she wants to be a politician, an artist or have five children, the most important thing is that she has the freedom to choose.”

The right to choose your own life is the core idea of Muriel’s women empowerment campaign. With regard to this idea, Muriel herself is a role model. She made up her mind to marry later in life, while also opting not to have children, a decision she made when she was in her twenties. Today, she is a newly-wed woman (only three years) with no children, and is clearly happy with the decisions she’s made.

"A woman should choose a way that she is comfortable with,” she concluded.