ABOUT THE FEMALE QUOTIENT 
Before The FQ, women at Davos and other tentpole conferences didn’t have a place to go. They felt disconnected, underestimated and invisible. That’s no longer the case.
The FQ’s legendary Equality Lounge® at Davos, Cannes Lions, CES, SXSW and more have forever altered the business agenda and sparked real change in the workplace.
And we’re just getting started.
Through our work, we tackle three fundamental, persistent challenges to parity:
- Gender inequalities still exist — and, in many cases, are getting worse.
- Women in business lack a community and a platform to raise their visibility.
- Organizations lack effective ways to close their equality gaps and engage the best talent.

When you add more women to any equation,
there is a return on equality:
FASTER INNOVATION
75%
Companies with diversity are 75% more likely to bring innovative ideas to market.
STRONGER LEADERSHIP
1.7x
Organizations with more women in leadership deliver 1.7x stronger leadership.
GREATER MARKET SHARE
70%
Companies with diversity are 70% more likely to capture new markets.
PROFITABLE GROWTH
1.4x
Organizations with more women in leadership deliver 1.4x sustained profitable growth.

AND YET
Only one in five C-suite leaders is a woman.
Fewer than one in 30 C-suite leaders is a woman of color.
The initial promotion to manager is one of the biggest obstacles women face on their career ladder.
Women, particularly those with low incomes, drop out of the workforce at a rate 3x higher than men due to caregiving responsibilities.
Sources: McKinsey & Company and Lean In, 2021; AARP, 2021; Oliver Wyman, 2021
The Female Quotient exists to close these gender equality gaps. Here's how:
EQUALITY
LOUNGE®
Where we collaborate with conscious leaders at key conferences to drive change
Pop-ups at industry conferences unite a network of Fortune 500 leaders to collaborate and ignite breakthrough ideas to foster equality.
GLOBAL
EXCHANGE
Where we collect insights from women in over 100 countries
Our dinner parties connect women in specific cities, countries, or regions to share perspectives and source successful strategies to close the gender gap.
ADVISORY
SERVICES
Where we activate solutions for closing the gender gap at work
Our diagnostic tools help companies identify where they have equality gaps and offer recommendations on how to close them, while leadership consulting moves the equality needle within their organizations.
FEATURED IN
SHELLEY ZALIS
CEO, The Female Quotient
Shelley Zalis is the CEO of The Female Quotient, an equality services company that creates platforms for women and solutions for organizations committed to closing the gender gap in the workplace. Through its signature Equality Lounge® at key industry conferences around the globe, Zalis and the FQ are connectors for the largest global community of mission-driven business leaders.
Zalis is a pioneer for online research, becoming the first female chief executive ranked in the research industry’s top 25. Today, Zalis works with Fortune 500 companies, impact organizations, and conscious leaders to advance equality in the workplace. A firm believer in giving back with generosity, Zalis is a proud mentor to women around the world.
Zalis authors a Forbes column that provides virtual mentorship for women in middle management. She is co-founder of #SeeHer, a movement led by the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) to increase the accurate portrayal of women and girls in advertising and media.

SHELLEY ZALIS
CEO, The Female Quotient
Shelley Zalis is an internationally renowned thought leader for advancing equality in the workplace and is the CEO of The Female Quotient. As the first female chief executive ranked in the research industry’s top 25, she changed the game, helped elevate feminine values in the workplace and has devoted herself to becoming a mentor and role model to women and leaders in her industry.
Today, through The Female Quotient, Zalis is advancing gender equality across industries and career levels. A firm believer in giving back with generosity, her legacy is to tap into the power of collaboration to transform workplace culture so that all people feel like they belong.
Zalis authors a Forbes column that provides advice for women in the “messy middle,” middle management, who are looking to rise up into leadership positions. She is co-founder of #SeeHer, a movement led by the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) to increase the accurate portrayal of women and girls in advertising and media. She is on the board of directors for MAKERS.
You can follow Shelley on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram.