Digital Women Awards 2022: Why We Need Core Equality At Workplace

On the 8th edition of SheThePeople's Digital Women Awards collaborated with UN Women in one of the panel discussions. The panel spoke about maintaining equality in the workplace. The awards inspire and acknowledge women entrepreneurs and their journeys.

On Day 5, the Why We Need Core Equality At Workplace panel at Digital Women Awards and Summit was presided over by Shaili Chopra, founder of SheThePeople and Gytree along with Kanta Singh, Deputy Country Representative, UN Women India and Dr Shankar Goeknka, Managing Director WOW Factors and International advisor at National Skill Development Corporation. The three of them spoke about the importance of equality and the need of the hour to listen to women and support them in various workplaces.

Challenges Indian Women Face Regarding Gender Equality At Workplace

Kanta Singh, when asked about how to make workplaces gender-neutral and inclusive for everyone, she said that "Every woman needs an award for their work, "A woman can do a lot of things that men can't. Everyone has their own challenges." To this Shankar Ghosh added, "Women want to work but they don't get the level of opportunity that men do." She said that equality of opportunity is most important and that creating a workplace where everyone has space to grow is the only way to move forward. Ghosh also mentioned the importance of upskilling he said, "Education Gives you knowledge but to implementation of that knowledge need skills."

When asked about running a modern workplace, Shaili Chopra said that in her own experience the degrees and achievements of a person is not the most important part of hiring them at her own organisation, it is the motivation to bring in change however different that can be. Shaili Chopra stated that it's all about making a change. She said, "Whatever happened is okay but we need to change."

How Can Men Change The Workplace Atmosphere?

When asked this question about the responsibilities of men in bringing a change in the dynamics of a workplace, Ghosh said, "We just need to involve everyone."He also said that including women in crucial responsibilities can only make the workplace better. Ghosh said that people look for motivation from the outside when it should be coming from within. Chopra shared her own experience that when she began to think about her own entrepreneurship, she received huge support from men. She said, "We as women can ask for support."

Economic Gender Gap

When asked about how can companies acknowledge the contribution of women and how to move forward with it, Kanta Singh said, "IF every girl from any corner in this country is asked what they aspire to be or what they want to do in life, everybody is more interested in what a boy wants to become in life, when its a girl's turn nobody wants to invest in it." She suggests that companies invest to create a platform for those women to have a platform to voice out their aspirations and eventually achieve them. Singh focuses on the fact that showcasing of data is very important, and how the inclusion of women has benefitted the profits of a factory. She also mentions that opportunities for women are increasing with time so women should be more aware of what is happening around them and look for schemes and policies to help themselves. She ended by saying, "Start looking at the bigger pictures and see yourself there contributing in whatever capacity you can and reach there, nobody can stop you from achieving it."

Co-existence Of Men And Women

Shaili Chopra shares what she thinks about the coexistence of the genders at the workplace, she said, "We say women are 50% of the population but do we recognise that we raise the other half?" continuing she explained, "If you see yourself as contributing, you'll also see yourself as doers, you'll be interested in making a change so how we see ourselves is partly problematic. Not just women but men too need to rewire how they see themselves." She talks about upskilling from the workplace and outside to make women more adaptive and skilful. She expects that all kinds of workplaces can adopt the energy of allowing everyone to shine and not restrict growth to a certain gender only.

Further, Kanta Singh shares a few lines of her poetry about women and her dreams and how freedom is important for girls to grow. ">Digital Women Awards and Summit first panel ended with a note encouraging women to move forward and make a place for themselves to grow.

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