People with big job titles–especially in marketing–are starting to notice. Twitter CMO Leslie Berland tweeted, “Hey @CES. Big respect for what you’ve built. Please do better here. I’ve got a long list of amazing women to hit your stage. Let’s talk. #changetheratio.” HP’s global CMO Antonio Lucio jumped on that thread and took it to 11. “All men should boycott @CES if women are not invited to speak!” he wrote. Others calling out CES include former PepsiCo Global president Brad Jakeman, Twitter director of sales Robin Wheeler, and ToysRUs global CMO Carla Hassan.

As one of few women in an executive role at The Honest Company, the actress turned entrepreneur admits "it's tough when you're the only woman in the room." She's working to empower more women so they, too, can get a seat at the table, she tells CNN's Poppy Harlow in a new podcast episode of Boss Files. Women make up 65% of The Honest Company's 400 employees. However, only three of nine executives there are female, including Alba. "I just felt so alone," says Alba, reflecting on being one of the only women in a leadership role during her early days at the company.

“We’re here because we need to innovate on gender equality,” says Elizabeth Nyamayaro, who heads up UN Women's HeForShe campaign. Making meaningful change, she says, will require something new. “We are here to learn from the tech industry: They are very good at innovation, so what is it we could do to accelerate progress for gender equality?”

The Redmond company made slight progress in its efforts to increase racial and gender diversity within its workforce in 2017, boosted in part by its acquisition last December of LinkedIn. The combined companies’ global employee base was 27.3 percent female at the end of September, compared with 25.8 percent at Microsoft alone last year.

Fairygodboss has found in our own survey of men in the workplace that a majority of men say they have privately advocated for equality, diversity and inclusion. While the fact that so many men have spoken up on behalf of women is encouraging, a new study by BCG suggests that younger men may speak up and behave in ways that are more aligned with the concerns of women.

The European commission is to push for a quota for women on company boards to address the slow progress to gender equality in the senior ranks of publicly listed businesses. Under the proposals, companies whose non-executive directors are more than 60% male would be required to prioritise women when candidates of equal merit were being considered for a post.

Silicon Valley’s “bro culture” has been complained about for years. Women entrepreneurs face enormous challenges raising venture capital; tech startups are stereotypically dominated by men; and female executives struggle to be heard by their male counterparts. But how bad is it, really?

Out of 144 countries, Italy ranks 82nd for equal opportunities at work and in politics, education and health. It has plummeted 32 places since last year’s ranking and 41 since 2015, placing it far behind its Northern European neighbours, who lead the index globally. Italy now ranks below almost any other country in the European Union, with the exception of the Czech Republic, Cyprus, Malta and Hungary.

"Basic numbers over time are going to favor a larger and larger number of women being involved [in politics] because women are taking up more and more positions in society in general," said Michael Cucek, adjunct professor of political science at Waseda University. "The flip side is Japan's very great resistance to immigration. Women have to take over many roles that previously men were doing."

"For the second year in a row, we see women hitting the glass ceiling much earlier than we traditionally thought. That has an impact on the entire pipeline. We're losing so many women at that critical step up. And on average, they never catch up."

Gender gaps are malleable, not intrinsic. Experience and socialization matter.

Despite genuine reasons to be concerned, the question no one is asking is why female teachers are staying in a profession that both men and women find frustrating and unfulfilling.