The 2012 International Women”s Leadership Forum held in Ulaanbaatar on July
8-9, 2012, to develop a common understanding on the importance of women”s
participation in political and economic spheres.

Over 100 women leaders from governments, private businesses, academia, civic
organizations and other fields attended the forum to study ways and best
practices to expand women”s access to political and economic arenas around the
world.

In an addressing to the forum, Mongolian Prime Minister Sukhbaatar Batbold
said the Mongolian government will double its support for women who are going
to participate in political and economic activities.

He said women are more vulnerable to economic crises and unemployment in
Mongolia, and there are many single mothers who struggle to sustain their
families and children.

Batbold stressed the government needs to do more to train women in business
so that they can become more resilient.

According to a report provided by the organizers, gender imbalance widely
exists in political and economic spheres in both developing and developed
countries.

A lack of gender balance in decision-making in government persists, and
women continue to be under-represented in national parliaments with an average
of only 17 percent of seats occupied by women around the world, shows the
report.

Over the last three decades, women”s participation in the labor force market
has increased, yet in both developing and developed countries wage differences
between salaried men and women have been extensively documented, says the
report.