Jack Ma calls for more roles for women

Women will play more important roles in the next 30 years and hold the final say over what’s beautiful and good, said Jack Ma, Chairman of Alibaba Group, at the third Global Conference on Women and Entrepreneurship in Hangzhou on Wednesday.

In a light-hearted way, Ma, also the UN Sustainable Development Goals Advocate, said women, not men, will make the final decision on getting married in the future.

He said data shows a doubling of men’s use of two cosmetic products – foundation makeup and eyelash enhancer – demonstrates they are making more effort to win the approval of women.

As the world undergoes great changes in many fields, from trade to technology and world politics, women have shown they can better adapt than men because women are born to like and embrace changes, said Ma.

Ma said 90 percent of artificial intelligence now uses the voice of women and even the gender is set to be female. If women can more widely participate in future technology and product design, progress in society will be even better, he added.

Ma also believes that women should play a bigger role and the world needs more female presidents and prime ministers. “I have called the UN to select a woman as the secretary-general as soon as possible,” he said.

He stirred up controversy at the previous women’s conference when he said he wants to be a woman in his next life and give birth to many children.