Empower, Encourage yourself

I got a chance to attend the”Women in Tech” event organized by Yahoo for Geeky women working in IT sectors. According to the Yahoo HR Exec, Aparna this was a tribute to all the geeky women and a platform where ladies could socialize with other women in technology industry. It was a great opportunity to “network, share and empower”.

The event started at 6.30 pm in Leela Palace, but as I reached there, I was given a Bingo sheet which had a number of events and we had to talk with girls there and get the signature of those who fit into the criteria and people who complete all the events would get gifts and 1 lucky lady gets “Ipad2”. It was fun, I met a couple of ladies, interacted with them, and we exchanged the sheets and signed the respective events we fit into…. :)

Later, there was a panel of executive level women who participated into a Debate topic and Sucharita from NASSCOM moderated the discussion. The topic was “Are women considered geeky enough to climb the corporate ladder? “ Since there were no guys, there was no as such hot debate on this topic, infact all of them shared their thoughts and views and gave some very good pointers.

I would summarize the discussion as;

Being Geeky means having the passion for technology, keeping abreast of all the upcoming technologies and wiliness to learn them.

Yes, Girls are geeky, but the number of girls that participate in such geeky talks are very less and hence they are not considered geeky enough. Girls should grab opportunities as men do and take up the challenges.

The statistics show that only 6%-7% of women are at executive levels. There are number of reasons, why the number is so low;

• As a woman grows in her professional life, she also has to take the responsibility of her family and that is when we give up growing and don’t take up roles of executive levels.
• Marriage and particularly parenthood, are life changing events in everyone’s lives and it is very important that women gets a supportive family for her to take up any executive level roles.

It is we, who do not consider girls geeky enough and hence backout from climbing high in the corporate ladder, so the message spread was “Empower and encourage ourselves.” Others will treat/consider girls the way they consider themselves, so it is entirely in our hands.

You must watch "Why we have too few women Leaders"talk by Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook.

• No one gets the promotion unless they think they deserve their success. Believe in yourself, own your own success. Reach out for opportunities
• Make your partner, real partner. Make sure, your partner is real supportive at home and appreciates your job at home and at work.
• Don’t leave before you leave. Stay in until the very day you really need to leave. Don’t make decisions too far in advance.