All-male business lunch at MSC triggers uproar

A photograph of a business leaders' lunch at the Munich Security Conference (MSC) has generated a storm of outrage on Twitter for showing around 30 older white men in suits seated around a large table, reported dpa.

World leaders and top diplomats have been meeting for the annual talking shop in southern Germany.

Michael Bröcker, editor in chief of The Pioneer, a German media group, took the picture on Friday and shared it on Twitter, prompting a slew of critique in Germany and abroad.

"This picture is like something from another world. But it is not another world. It is reality in 2022," Social Democrat lawmaker Sawsan Chebli tweeted. "There is power here and women are missing here. We still have a lot of work to do."

A British academic, Jennifer Cassidy retweeted the image, saying, "This is the CEO lunch at #MSC2022. This is reality. This is where power lies. Where some of the most consequential decisions are made."

Others commented on the absence of people of colour in the image.

The event organizers pointed out that 45% of the speakers at the conference were women. However, they noted that fewer women were among the senior managers in attendance.

"We'll do better next year," said Joe Kaeser, the former head of engineering conglomerate Siemens and one of the managers shown in the photo.

Kaeser, who chairs the MSC Advisory Committee, later told a German media outlet that eight out of the ten women invited to the lunch had cancelled.

One woman had accepted the invitation but did not come, he told Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland. Meanwhile another woman was present, but was not shown in the photo, Kaeser added.