#EachforEqual - Evonik celebrates international women's day
On International Women's Day, women around the world are celebrated for their social, economic, cultural and political achievements. This day also raises awareness for stereotypes and prejudices against women and encourages to take an active role in increasing gender equality.
At Evonik, employees with different backgrounds and perspectives enrich the daily work and help to improve the company every day. In the past, Evonik has fostered a continuous increase in gender diversity at all levels of hierarchy. Yet there is still room for improvement! Therefore, we have taken International Women's Day as an opportunity to ask women all around Evonik to talk about their opinion on gender equality and to share their thoughts on why it is important to support each other.
We asked Celine - Plant Engineering Manager of EMSEA – from Singapore: “How are you supporting and encouraging other women within Evonik?”
- “Being in a male-dominated industry, women - such as myself - find that at times we have more hurdles to cross than our male counterpart to achieve the same recognition in our career. Therefore, I try to support my female colleagues by being approachable and offer them ‘mentorship’ when they are faced with difficulties at work. As some of us are also mothers, the advice we offer one another is not only limited to work topics but also deals with family-related issues. In fact, we created an ‘EMSEA mommies’ group where we share milestones and tips!”
Grace – Director CM Partnership & Strategy – from China was asked: “Which woman inspires you and has shaped your life?”
- “Looking back, I have been amazed and inspired by many women around me - my friends, co-workers, my mother, grandmother and even my daughter ... Despite all the challenges, these women – of different generations, from different backgrounds and pursuing different career paths – have successfully reached important milestones in their life. Let us continue to believe in ourselves and support each other.”
From Eleonora – Human Resources Manager – and her colleagues from Russia we wanted to know: “Why is it so important to support other women?”
- “I think that as women, we sometimes tend to ‘play it safe’. We want to control the situation and thus hesitate more to take risks. And therefore, it is important to encourage other women to take brave and bold decisions. It is not only about important decisions in business. It’s the small things: support and inspire each other day by day, sharing compliments, exchanging small talk about your personal life during lunch break.”
In Germany we discussed the question with members of our women’s network groW: “Do networks like groW help to increase gender equality? Why have you decided to participate?”
- “Through our participation in the groW network at Evonik we want to contribute to promoting diversity and thereby support the cultural change within the company. The groW network is a perfect platform to meet colleagues of various backgrounds, to exchange views - to share and to learn.”
This special day has its roots in the late 19th century where it started as a labor movement and political “Women’s Fight Day”. Nowadays it is an incentive to appreciate the women who inspire, motivate and support us in our lives. At the same time, it gives the opportunity to be thankful for the support every one of us receives every day: “I have to say that several colleagues had a very positive impact on my work, both from my own and other departments. My colleagues - regardless of gender, department, and age - share valuable experiences or suggestions with me and have given me many impulses to think in a different direction or issue-solving solutions in various situations. It really helped me to grow!” (Nami, Administration, Taiwan)
