Getting invited to Zambia to speak on gender balancing the business world was a bit unexpected. But the experience was also humbling. Discovering that Mark Bennett, the head of the leading internet provider in Zambia has 60% women in his staff, would put many a German CEO to shame. And listening to Cyprian Chitundu, the CEO of Zesco, the national electricity company, invite his male managers to “look inside themselves on how they treat women”, was welcome to this gender consultant, and a role model that could export northward. But then, Zambia needs enlightened leadership…

I have just returned from a deep dive trip to Australia and New Zealand. Interestingly, many of the people I spoke with thought Australia was lagging behind Europe and North America on this issue (despite the government being led by a woman, Julia Gillard). But actually the data doesn’t support this perception. The Grant Thornton survey (quoted below) has the gender balance in senior management in Australia well ahead of either the US or Germany.

It may not, however, be that the surprising that the Australians feel they could do better. Their neighbours are. If you look at Asia, you find some of the most gender balanced countries on the planet, those that have reached the key level of ‘critical mass’: China, New Zealand, or the Philippines.

Going to the far corners of the globe, to Australia, was no escape from the lessons that global leaders have been receiving on gender. Leadership in the 21st century will require being able to lead, manage and work – appropriately – across genders, both at work and at home. What is surprising is how difficult a lesson this – still – seems to be. It is time for global leaders to take sex seriously.

Leaders have been mismanaging – and underestimating – gender relations in almost every region of the planet this past month. Our own (I live in France) great hope for next President, DSK, is now a political and social outcast in New York. Berlusconi is (finally) beginning to lose court cases and elections (after losing his wife) in Italy after decades of sensationally flaunting his outdated attitudes towards women. Schwarznegger lost his wife and family in California for an affair with a household employee. And even in Australia, the papers are full of the forced resignation of Public Prosecutor Rapke, who promoted a young female subordinate to a $150,000 dollar job. What gives?

Most people assume that as gender experts we spend most of our time focused on promoting women into leadership. Actually, our work mostly involves working with the men who run large companies. The objective is to help them come to grips with the gender trends – and opportunities – behind the huge economic shifts at play in the world. It startles them to discover, for example, that 80% of the jobs lost in this recession in the US were lost by men, mostly in manufacturing. And that 80% of the jobs created in the EU since the year 2000 were filled by women, mostly in services. The world is changing, and gender is playing a huge and under-reported part in the shift – at home and at work. Managers are massively uninformed.

Why are business schools so reluctant to teach gender to the world’s future managers? An appreciation of gender, rooted in an economic business case, seems such a compelling and obvious business issue that one would have thought business educators would be falling over themselves to “own” the topic. That they would be fighting to deliver answers to a major business challenge and providing the next generation of leaders passing through their doors with an understanding of the crucial skills needed to work effectively in a more gender balanced work place environment and to respond to ever more powerful female customers.

March 8th, 2011 is International Women’s Day. And a decade into the 21st century we are seeing some pretty remarkable consequences of women’s 20th century rise. And, at last, the subject of ‘women’ is beginning to be mainstreamed into management, political and economic debates. In Europe, the debate around gender quotas on corporate boards is sweeping the region. In the Middle East, women’s education may be contributing more to change than is yet recognized. And in China and India where I will be spending the week of March 8th, women and their changing roles are becoming a huge economic and demographic issue.

It’s time to stop. The latest barrage of sensationalist titles equating the rise of women with the decline of men. Now that these have made their way around the US, they are coming to Europe with the cover story of France’s Expansion magazine in January: ‘The Power of Women, How They Will Profit from the Decline of the Masculine.’ From Belgium, JUMP’s newsletter chimes in with ‘Have Women Scored a Knockout Over Men?’

It is imperative that this constant pairing of ‘rising women’ and ‘falling men’ stop. Women have absolutely nothing to gain from fearful men. Neither at home, nor at work. And the reality, in my experience, is quite different.

New year, new world. Nothing like a trip to Asia to get a sense of the opportunities that still lie ahead for humankind. It is awe inspiring to watch people and countries rise. The countries and companies of the region will get there a lot faster – and peacefully – if they harness both halves [...]

It is good in times of economic crises to travel to places that are booming, optimistic and innovative. And that aren’t called China. Chile is such a place. A gorgeous 5,000 mile slice of land squeezed between the Pacific and the Andes, it is an emerging market that is leaving a tough past joyously behind [...]

There have been two women’s conferences held in France this month. Each attracted over 1,000 participants, and was the perfect place for debating the latest round of gender studies from McKinsey, the World Economic Forum and Bain & Co. The Boston Consulting Group hosted a Diversity Corner in Deauville. The International Herald Tribune published a special report on women in France as part of its Female Factor series. We published our annual WOMENOMICS 101 report (picked up by TIME and the Glasshammer.com). With this newsletter, we add our WOMENOMICS 101 Focus on France. The least one can say is that the gender topic has come of age.