The Big Talk: International Women\'s Day 2019 Hey Women The Theme Is #BalanceforBetter

Biggest Hurdles Women still facing at professional front- How can you help them?

A balance world is a better world. How can you help forge a more gender -balance world?

Thanks for supporting International Womens day and celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women on this great day. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating gender parity.

Equal Pay -It's 2019, and Women still make less than men.

Women around the world continue to face a Wage gap. In fact, women on average will need to work more than 70 additional days each year just to catch up to the earnings of men. Research shows that even after taking account prior experience, time since degree, job level, industry, and global region, women MBA graduates were paid less than men in their first job after graduation.

Race and Gender Bias- Women of color continue to deal with some of the Workplace's most entrenched hurdles.

Everyone has unconcious biases-even the best-intentioned people-which play out in their everyday lives and interactions such as those in the workplace. Working women of color face a unique set of challenges that intersect across race/ethnicity, gender, and culture. Because of this, many women of color who oftentimes have to deal with daunting roadblocks such as people's beliefs, attitudes, and experiences.

Role Models-There are few Powerful examples of Women Role Models in Workplaces.

You can't be what you can't see. One of the researches shows that almost two-thirds of women reported a lack of senior or visbly successful female role models as a major obstacle to their carrer advancement. While women are almost half of the US labor force, they make up less than 5% of CEOs and less than 10% of top earners in the S&P 500; and for women of color are nearly invisible on both S&P 500 boards and Fortune 500 boards.

Sponsorship: Not enough leaders are sponsoring highly qualified women by speaking up on their behalf.

Lets take any work culture, Relationships are necessary for employees to attain high-visibility assignments, promotions, and connections. For women, sponsors - advocates in positions of authority who use their influence intentionally to help others advance are essential to ensuring carrer advancement and professional development. We know that women have a lot of mentors; but they also need sponsors who will give them visibility, talk about their accomplishments behind closed doors, and promote them for stretch opportunities.

Sexual Harrassment-Women at all levels of employment and all levels of workplace are affected.

Sexual Harrasment remains a widespread problem and a unsolved matter. And atleast one-quarter of women having reported having some sort of harassments on the job. This is inappropriate behavior costs employers in many ways: increased absenteesim, persistent job turnover, and low productivity and engagement. Individually, women become depressed, experience anxiety, or quit all together in the hope of avoiding continued harrassment.

Non-inclusive Workplaces-Women often feel dismissed or ignored

When women feel like outsiders in the workplace because of unique qualities or differences for e.g gender, race /ethnicity, nationality, age,religion, sexual orientation.they feel excluded. Exclusion comes at a great cost to organizations in the form of lowered job satisfaction, reduced work effort, diminished employee voice, and greater intention to leave. Building an inclusive workplace means creating a culture that fully engages and supports all employees.