No one is new to the topic of women’s suffering. Be it within the four walls of their safe spaces called homes, their workplaces, or society at a holistic margin. Women have been striving to pave the way for what is fair and right for years. Feminism may sound like a trend recently talked about, but it dates to the time way back in the past. May not with the same name, but with the same spirit; it can be traced within Islamic history with entrepreneurial figures such as Khadijah-bint-Khuwaylid, the first Woman of Islam, furthering First-wave feminism in the late 19th century, where the conversation overturned towards the legal inequalities. Second-wave feminism broadened the horizon, contributing to the cultural, gender, and societal inequalities based on a woman’s role.
Since then, women have been striving for excellence and their due acknowledgment and have broke quite many glass ceilings. In doing so, organizational inclusivity has played an immense role. Organizations all around have been fostering the spirit of women’s equality by opening crucial job positions for women, enabling a workplace environment supportive enough for their well-being, introducing policies safeguarding them, and fostering confidence in them to make autonomous decisions. Binate Digital is one such company that not just appreciates but celebrates its women workforce.
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Celebrating Our Women
To do so, we invited all our female staff on International Women’s Equality Day to a session designed to empower and inspire all others in the room, highlighting the remarkable achievements of women throughout history and within our own company. We delved into discussions on women’s empowerment and explored avenues to further support and uplift each other within our professional journeys. In addition to the empowerment discussions, the session included fun team-building activities aimed at fostering a sense of camaraderie and collaboration among all.
Starting from the ice-breaking activity that circled around introducing oneself with name designation, yet it wasn’t so simple. Everyone was asked to tell one lie and truth about themselves for the others to guess which is what. It broke all the coldness amongst the audience, where they put their heads together to guess the vice and virtues of the person standing.
The trainer of the session introduced the concept of Personal Branding to all.
The audience was then engaged in a SWOT Activity, wherein they were asked to write their professional Strength, Weaknesses, Threats, and Opportunities over the distributed paper.
The above activity was then linked to the following Mask Activity, wherein all were asked to fill a human face with anything that would represent the elements of SWOT. The only requisite set was to make sure that at least each element from all four corners was represented in the mask.
The activity not only unleashed the creative side of our female employees but also fostered a sense of sharing amongst them, where they were observed to share color pencils and markers all around the room with each other.
Everyone in the room then took turns to share their masterpieces while everyone else guessed what their masks depicted. However, the creativity and thoughtfulness took everyone by surprise. One female said, “The last time I colored was in 6th grade,” while the other shared that she last colored at 3’0 clock, later adding that it was for her children.
In doing so, many stories, fears, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and schools of thought were shared. Topics of all kinds were discussed, starting from confidence, motherhood, family, and pets to life traumas, aspirations, islamophobia, women’s rights activism, economy, career enlargement, and leadership; all were invited to the table.
Over the occasion, the People and Culture Specialist, on behalf of the Human Resource Department and the company, introduced two of the note-worthy initiatives for the workforce.
Initiative I: Performance Management System
Continuing over the discussion of shattering the glass ceilings, the audience was informed that the company has said adios to the system of appraisal that is long obsolete, where only the favorite or the privileged perished. Instead, appraisals will now be evaluated over the set Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to rule out favoritism of heads and unfair advantages to any gender. The company is all set to appraise the person who is doing the job right and not who pleases the boss most or on the basis of gender.
Over this announcement, a female staff member said, “It is appreciable to say that I work in a place where my salary is the same as any of the guys working in my team at the same level.”
Initiative II: We Hear You
The female staff was made aware of another vital announcement pertaining to the setting up of an internal committee chaired by the Manager of HR (Male), Head of Quality Assurance (Female), Head of Digital Marketing (Female), and two other female associates of the company. It is done to make it easy for our employees to reach out to those they are comfortable with if they feel any discomfort at our work premises. Whether it be discriminatory, personal, physical, power, psychological, cyberbullying, retaliation, sexual, quid pro quo (this for that), third-party, or verbal harassment, these five members signed up to be actively available whenever needed.
Our company’s people-driven philosophy enables us not just to know but remain conscious that society is not quite easy for a working woman. She is caught up with responsibilities that may not be similar to a working man, and we understand the sacrifices she makes for her career. These thoughts linger in her mind when she is at work, away from home, with a mind in two places, one with her family and the other with her workplace responsibility. Often, she shows up with pain of all kinds but a smile that hides it all. Yet, she amazes us every time with her power to prove herself as a mother, daughter, sister, wife, and professional expert in her work against every odd. To all such women at our company, we vow to make it a bit easier for you.
