2022 Q4 Newsletter
Empowering Women in the Workplace to be Leaders
The WEC quarterly newsletter explores the latest thought leadership on women empowerment and DEI, showcases the significant efforts and progress made by our committed Members, and highlights special announcements and updates about the council.
Thought Leadership
Explore the latest learnings on women empowerment and diversity, equity, and inclusion.
In our last 2022 quarterly newsletter, the WEC focuses on our core mission by exploring the latest data and insights on advancing gender equality and empowering women in the workplace. The Q4 issue delves into this year’s research and statements by the International Monetary Fund, Citi Global Perspectives and Solutions, UN DESA, World Economic Forum, World Bank, Lean In and McKinsey to present key findings on the economic implications of achieving gender equality, the impact on working women two years into a global pandemic, persisting gender disparities in leadership, and most importantly, actions that companies must take to support, advance, and retain women.
Gender equality can stimulate economic growth
We repeatedly hear that achieving gender equality is the right thing and the smart thing to do. It is integral to a rapid recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and an opportunity to rebuild “resilient, sustainable, and inclusive economies” moving forward (IMF, 2022). Research shows that when women are economically empowered it has significant ripple effects, such as (Citi GPS, 2022):
- Business impact – when women-led and women-owned businesses have equitable access to financing and resources, they can be more profitable than businesses led/owned by men.
- Community impact – women tend to invest more of their earnings than men in the “health, education, and welfare of their families and communities”.
- Social and environmental impact – women can offer innovative perspectives and solutions to global challenges such as food insecurity and climate change.
- GDP and employment impact – “achieving gender parity in business growth could increase global GDP by up to US$ 2 trillion” and create between 288 to 433 million new jobs.
- Global impact – gender equality is goal 5 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals and considered critical to achieving all 17 goals.
Inter-Agency Affairs, UN DESA (Department of Economic and Social Affairs)
All countries still have gender disparities
Despite the indisputable and immense impact of economically empowering women, governments and companies are still failing to adequately support, advance, and retain them. No country has achieved full gender parity yet, and at the current rate of progress, the World Economic Forum anticipates it will take 132 years to achieve globally (2022). Policy change is imperative in order to progress at a faster rate. The World Bank reports that around 2.4 billion women of working age do not currently have equal economic opportunity with men since 178 countries maintain legal barriers that prevent women’s full economic participation, 86 countries restrict their access to certain jobs, and 95 countries do not guarantee equal pay for equal work (2022).
COVID-19 has set the clock back for working women
The COVID-19 global pandemic has only made matters worse. Globally, 64 million women were let go by their employer during the pandemic, twice the number of men. This is because women tend to have jobs that offer less stability, security, and compensation (IMF, 2022). The reasons women take these jobs in the first place is also due to gender inequities. As aforementioned, women face significant structural barriers that limit their access and opportunities, but they also face societal expectations and employer policies that enforce caregiving and household responsibilities on them, responsibilities that increased during the pandemic.
Gender gap in senior leadership persists due to systemic bias
Comparing data on men and women employees along the talent pipeline, the gender gap remains widest at the top. In the U.S., Lean In and McKinsey reveal a trend that has consistently held working women back for eight consecutive years: “the broken rung” on the corporate ladder. The “broken rung” is the first step up to manager from entry-level roles. At this level, women are promoted at far lower rates than men with 87 women promoted for every 100 men. This makes it almost impossible for companies to close the gender gap in senior leadership, since the pool of talent available is built on an inequitable foundation.
Their report also reveals that a new trend has emerged in 2022: women leaders are quitting in unprecedented numbers and at a higher rate than men in leadership. To put the scale of the issue into perspective, for every woman at the director level who gets promoted, two women directors are walking out the door. What’s driving these women to leave their companies? Three key factors:
- Women leaders are ambitious but exhausted by combating bias at work. They are motivated to advance but are also far more likely than men to be mistaken for someone junior, have their idea credited to a colleague, and have their judgment, qualifications, and personal characteristics called into question. These daily microaggressions create an emotional tax on women leaders and companies are losing them as a result.
- Women leaders are bearing the bulk of DEI work and not being recognized or compensated. Despite companies saying they value employee wellbeing, a diverse workforce, inclusive culture, and equitable workplace, women leaders will spend twice as much time and energy to drive these efforts but fail to be acknowledged and end up burning out.
- Women leaders want a workplace culture that aligns with their values and priorities. Flexibility, DEI, wellbeing, and work-life balance are a top priority to women leaders. And for good reason. Women at all levels are far more likely to be responsible for household and caregiving duties than men, but the imbalance is highest between men and women leaders. At entry-level, women are around twice as likely as men to be taking on unpaid labor in the home; at leadership level, they are four times as likely.
Intentional actions needed to advance equity and empower women
Companies must take intentional actions to support, advance, and retain women in the workplace and drive gender parity across the organization. This year, the WEC produced it’s first DEI Report that captures the best practices and thought leadership of 15 multinational companies. The WEC recommends high impact actions to advance gender equality in businesses in China and beyond:
- Build culture on a strong, purpose-driven foundation by getting clear on the ‘why’
- Make everyone accountable to DEI with company-wide goals tied to performance
- Offer Flexible Work Arrangements to promote choice, wellbeing, and work-life success
- Train key stakeholders to reduce bias, increase awareness, and drive behavioral change
- Embed transparency, fairness, and inclusion in HR policies and procedures
- Track diversity data consistently to inform decision-making and KPIs
- Build programs to address inequities, accelerate women, and cultivate allyship
- Encourage men to be equal caretakers with equitable parental leave policies
- Create multiple channels for transparent employee feedback and act on it
Member Spotlight
Learn about the significant efforts and progress made by our passionate and committed WEC Members to empower women and drive diversity, equity, and inclusion in their organizations or the wider community.
Every one of us is different, but that’s a good thing! Diversity brings different people into the workplace, and therefore brings different expertise and ideas to the table. At Dow, we lead with inclusion and diversity while working towards equity.
“In Dow, we believe our employees are the face of diversity. We embrace this by attracting, promoting, and retaining diverse talent. Their different perspectives, rich experience, and backgrounds makes Dow a leading company in materials science. We embrace I&D mindset in Dow greater China, also reflected by matured programs, policies, and resources in place to enable true inclusion, diversity, and equity in the workplace.” – Selena Chu, Vice President, Dow China
This year marks Dow’s 125-year anniversary. Along the journey, Dow continues to commit to building a great place to work with world class employee experience that enables every employee to thrive within our business.
Commitment to the Advancement of Women at Dow
Dow’s Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) play a key role in providing additional opportunities for people to grow personally and professionally throughout their Dow careers. Currently, Dow has 10 ERGs that focus on various dimensions of diversity including underrepresented groups, different cultures, gender, and generations.
Starting from last year, Dow global set key metrics around ERG participation, Women Representation, and Women Leadership in Dow’s annual Performance Award (Bonus) for all people leaders spanning a population of nearly 3,000 leaders globally. Dow has progressed well exceeding its 125% target last year and continues this approach this year to accelerate gender equality and ID&E journey through annual performance award design. Increase in female leadership: within Dow Asia, year on year increased 36% in 2020 to 38% 2021. In Greater China, over 50% of Greater China Leadership Team (GCLT) are female leaders.
Women’s Inclusion Network (WIN) is one of the most influential ERGs in Dow Greater China. For more than 30 years, it has supported the professional development of women, offering mentoring, networking opportunities, and providing access to professional development tailored to the unique needs of women at critical career stages. WIN is launching an enhanced strategic focus that will help women in Dow grow their skills and prepare for today’s unique market challenges. Most recently, in addition to focusing on “advancement of women,” WIN is moving forward with “engaging men as allies” driving deeper conversations for all.
“Dow WIN ERG’s strategic focuses are on 4 areas: developing and advancing women in leadership, catalyzing culture change, engaging men as allies, and engaging external partners to contribute to our community. Dow WIN China team is super passionate on enhancing our offerings around mentoring, coaching, networking, and providing increased access to professional development opportunities tailored to the unique needs of women at critical career stages to catalyze culture change by engaging champions, both men and women, across the organization.” – Heidi Xu, WIN Chair, Dow APAC
With Mental Health & Wellbeing playing a more important role in the workplace, Dow’s Employee Assistance Program (EAP) provides vital, round-the-clock support to employees. It can be beneficial to all employees and helps to provide a listening ear in a confidential and reassuring manner.
With the new way of working, like many companies, Dow has adopted flexible work practice called Design Your Day, empowering employees to integrate work and life balance whether at home or in the office. This philosophy complements the focus on wellbeing and work-life balance by shifting focus away from where and when people work, to how and what value they deliver.
We have seen how inclusive family-friendly policies help to attract and retain women, as well as encourage men to be equal caretakers at home. At Dow, all parents, regardless of gender are eligible for 16-week full-paid parental leave. This reinforces that all parents share in the responsibility of family care and play a vital role in the care and nurturing of children.
“By having an intentional focus on inclusion and equity, or fairness, we are moving forward in closing the gaps in our practices and policies creating a more inclusive workplace for everyone. It really takes everyone from leadership, businesses, functions, and ERGs collaborating together creating an impact that is felt throughout the entire organization.” – Curtis Baker, Regional Inclusion and Diversity Lead, Dow
Dow has launched the Female Technician Program to develop new female talent from internship to full time employee in Zhangjiagang manufacturing site. This program ran in Dow’s Zhangjiagang manufacturing site is a targeted development program to bridge the gap from internship to full time employees specifically with female technicians. As a one-year program, this program starts with campus hiring to engage with female students and offers development to full time through addressing the gap from student life to full time employee. Participants receive mentoring both from peers and allies on soft skills, technical skills and more. This program has helped to address the equity needed for female technicians in a manufacturing site from skills, balance of work and social development and more.
Recent Recognitions
- Dow has a long history of building a culture of inclusion, diversity, and equity in its workplaces across the globe. It was recognized among the 2021 Top 50 Companies for Diversity (#15) list from DiversityInc.
- This year, Dowwas named to Bloomberg’s Gender-Equality Index (GEI) for the second consecutive year, demonstrating its continued commitment to gender inclusion and data transparency.
- Recently, Dow was named to FORTUNE’s World’s Most Admired Companies list for 2022.
- Dow was recognized as a leader in Inclusion & Diversity by Great Place to Work, Human Rights Campaign, DisabilityIN, Out & Equal, INvolve, National Organization on Disability, Forbes, PEOPLE Magazine, Economic Dividends for Gender Equality (EDGE), and the Financial Times.
- In China, Dow is certified as a Top Employer in China for 15 consecutive years.
- Dow China was honored as a Gender-Inclusive Workplace by UN Women in 2020 & 2021.
How Reading Can Increase the Representation of Women Along the Pipeline
What colleagues are learning at the Henkel Reading Club
截至2022年汉高管理层女性的比例已经增加至38%，为实现更多元化、包容性和公平的职场环境，汉高设定了加大提高整个公司女性员工比例的目标，并正在朝着2025年实现管理层性别比例平等的目标前进。为了响应此目标，汉高ACM中国销售团队的女同事们在业余时间践行和发扬“多元、公平与包容“的公司文化，针对女性群体，开展读书会活动，通过好书分享，邀请内外部的卓越女性领导人分享她们的成功经验，创造安全的环境，为女性发声，帮助其职业发展。
By 2022, the proportion of females in Henkel’s management has increased to 38%. In order to achieve a more diverse, inclusive, and equitable workplace environment, Henkel has set a goal to increase the percentage of female employees across the company and is on track to achieve gender parity in management by 2025. In response to this ambition, Henkel ACM China’s female sales team members practice and promote the company culture of “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion” in their spare time by conducting book clubs for women, inviting both internal and external female role models, to share their success stories through book recommendations, and creating a safe environment to amplify female voices and help them develop their careers.
成立于2022年初，该读书会旨在为ACM销售团队的女同事间建立一座沟通的桥梁，形成积极分享、自信乐观的团队文化，促进新老员工之间的交流，为女性突破职业发展瓶颈，实现理想，共同进步。
Founded in early 2022, the club aims to build a bridge between female colleagues in the team, enhance inter-personal communications and encourage self-improvement. The club has formed a culture of positive sharing, self-confidence, and optimism, helping to promote exchanges between newer and older employees and nurturing mutual care. Ultimately, helping females break the glass of career advancement.
除了对阅读书籍的学习和心得分享，她们还借此平台分享生活感悟、交流职场心得。经过近半年的读书会活动，每位女同事都表示自己在个人能力、职场经验、气质发展、业务表现等方面都取得了长足进展。
In addition to learning and sharing from reading books, the members are using this platform to build personal connections outside of work, sharing life insights and key learnings/successful career stories in the workplace. After nearly half a year of reading activities, all of the members have said they have made great progress in their personal ability, career experience, and work performance.
负责ACM宁波区域销售的常莉是离开大学加入公司不到二年的女销售管培生，她积极参与读书会活动，向资深员工们学习。她非常仰慕ACM大中华区业务负责人Rachel Zheng的销售能力和自信气质，主动请教并得到Rachel的多方指导。通过该活动，常莉从同事们身上汲取了许多正能量，她的个人销售能力进一步提升，业务方面进步显著，在今年上半年的Loctite CA销售比赛和成功案例分享中均获优胜奖。
Carrie Chang is a female sales management trainee in charge of the ACM Ningbo regional sales team. She joined Henkel less than two years ago after graduating from university, and has become an active participant in the club, where she enjoys reading and learning from senior employees. Carrie greatly admires the sales ability and self-confidence of Rachel Zheng, Head of ACM Greater China from who Carrie proactively sought and received advice and guidance. Carrie has drawn a lot of positive energy from her other colleagues in the Reading Club. Her personal sales ability has been further improved and her business performance has made remarkable progress. In the first half of this year, she won prizes in both the Loctite CA sales competition and Success Case Sharing Initiative.
学校毕业不到一年现负责上海浦东区域销售的左文静是女同事读书会的积极分子。她把读书会活动和乐泰业务结合起来，以时下畅销的《向前一步》一书为引子与同事们深入学习和探讨，总结出和汉高市场业务相关的多种社会现象、心理活动背后的本质，推断向前进步的方法论，做到知行合一，学以致用。她相信“每个人都是推动改变世界的齿轮，她的切身体会是：“书而告之，读而享之，知而行之，用而善之。”
Another club member, Ella Zuo, is an even newer recruit to Henkel – joining less than a year ago after graduation. In charge of sales in Shanghai’s Pudong district, Ella combines Reading Club activities with thinking about how to further support Loctite’s business. They recently read the current best-selling book “One Step Forward” and deeply discussed the essence behind a variety of social phenomena and psychological activities that are related to Henkel’s business. Believing that “everyone is a cog to change the world”, this serious study inspired Ella to put her learnings into practice. “To read is to tell, to read is to enjoy, to know is to do, and to do it well.”
黄玲玲从区域销售工程师刚刚提升到销售经理职位不到半年。她在个人业绩、待人接物方面都相当优秀。作为新晋经理，她主动向其他资深高管学习。经过近半年的读书会活动，她学会了在多变和复杂的市场环境中带领团队向前向上，并在“如何建设一个以业务增长为方向的可持续发展的销售队伍”方面有自己的见解，她根据自己在读书会中学习到的经验，整合了经销商渠道，对现有资源进行高效配置，以支持业务的发展。
Just six months ago Karen Huang was promoted from regional sales engineer to sales manager. Although very capable in her work and confident in interacting with people around her, in her new role as manager she took the initiative to learn from other senior employees. After nearly half a year of reading club activities, she has learned new skills to help lead her team to move forward in the changeable and complex market environment. She established her own opinions on “how to build a sustainable sales team oriented by business growth”. Based on her experience gained at the Reading Club, she has integrated dealer channels and efficiently allocated existing resources to successfully support the development of the business.
每一位参加读书会的同事都乐在其中，积极分享。刘茄琳Jannice Liu描绘老家张家界的山水风光，高叶子Yezi Gao介绍内蒙古特色的饮食文化，徐丹Daisy Xu分享女生味十足的小资装修，刘小敏Xiaomin Liu晒出家里珍藏的十八般兵器，李雨晴Shirley Li展现南国变化的日新月异，毛惠婕Vicky Mao呈现海派文化的细腻和高雅精致。
Besides career development topics, all the members of the Reading Club also bring more personal and lifestyle topics to the group, which creates closer connections. Jannice Liu introduced the landscape of her hometown Zhangjiajie, Yezi Gao shared the food culture of Inner Mongolia, Daisy Xu showcased pretty “bourgeoise” decoration styles, Xiaomin Liu showed the unique collections at her home, Shirley Li demonstrated the rapid changes in southern China, and Vicky Mao showcased the delicacy and elegance of Shanghai culture.
在这样一个给予女性支持文化多元、宽厚包容的读书会中，女同事们彼此创造社交机会交流、相互成就，共同进步。
Through such a Reading club that gives women support for cultural diversity and generosity and tolerance, female colleagues have created a networking environment for females for personal & professional development together.
汉高大中华区人力资源总监Jane Wong Pinter说“ 我们珍视女员工，关心女员工的发展，致力于打破女性在职场受到的歧视、不平等对待，并在努力构建更加包容的女性工作环境，让女员工们都能获得重视、尊重和支持，从而可以充分发挥潜能。”
汉高通用工业制造与维修大中华区负责人，同时也是这个读书会的主持人Rachel Zheng说“通过读书会，我们期望最终能帮助提升女性员工的能力、自信、自尊，提升竞争优势，还能带来更多元化的想法、更强大的创新精神，改变职场上一些固有的状况与格局打破对女性的偏见，增强女性在职场中的代表性。”
“We care about female employees and their development, and we remain dedicated to breaking the discrimination and unconscious bias that women face in the workplace, and strive to build a more inclusive working environment in which female employees can be valued, respected, and supported, so that they can unleash their potential.” – Jane Wong Pinter, Head of HR Greater China, Henkel
“We hope that the Reading club, it can not only improve the ability, self-confidence, and self-esteem of female employees, and enhance their competitive advantage, but also bring more diversified ideas and establish a stronger innovation spirit and change some inherent situations and patterns in the workplace to hack the bias of female and increase their representation along the pipeline.” – Rachel Zheng, Head of General Industrial Manufacturing and Maintenance, Henkel Greater China and the host of Reading Club
Progress Report
Catch up on any WEC activities you’ve missed this quarter and stay up to date on important announcements.
2022 Women Entrepreneurs Marketplace
The 2022 Women Entrepreneurs Marketplace is organized by the WEC with support from the U.S. Department of State’s Proving Opportunities for Women’s Economic Rise (POWER) Initiative. The Marketplace was a successful initiative that took place on the morning of September 22 at the China World Hotel in Beijing, prior to the WE Forum. This event served as a platform to connect Multinational Corporations (MNCs) with China-based woman-owned business enterprises (WBEs) to the end of promoting commercial activities and encouraging diverse and inclusive supply chains. 13 WBEs and 12 MNCs participated in the exclusive 1-on-1 meetings. Thank you to our WEC Members bp, Chayora, ConocoPhillips, Dow, HPE, Merck, and Volvo cars for supporting your procurement, sourcing, and/or purchasing representatives’ engagement in this initiative.
2022 Women Empowerment Forum
On September 22 afternoon, the WEC successfully held its first Women Empowerment Forum attended by over 1,300 guests (virtual & in-person). The theme was ‘Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: Lights, Camera, Action!’ to launch the WEC’s pioneering DEI Report, shine a light on DEI strategies and best practices, and inspire action to create workplaces that embrace inclusivity for all!
Diane Ho, Partner, WEC and Selena Chu, VP, Dow China and Co-Chair, WEC, presented the report findings which reveal that a subset of China MNCs performed better than global and regional gender diversity statistics: WEC member companies have a 4% higher proportion of women in the workforce compared to the global private sector, with 41.2% compared to 37% globally; and a higher proportion of women in top-level leadership regionally, with 30.9% compared to 28% in APAC and on par with global at 31%.
Special guests Mu Hong, Director General, Liaison Department, All-China Women’s Federation and Lui Tuck Yew, Ambassador for the Republic of Singapore to the PRC provided a deeper insight into progress in China and the international community.
Panel discussions on “Changing Systemic Bias Through Tangible Action” and “Inclusion Starts from the Top Down” showcased strategic recommendations from leaders: Jacob Cooke, Co-Founder & CEO, WPIC Marketing + Technologies, Yali Z. Liu, Executive Vice President, Chayora, Marcus Williams, Director of Customer Support, Boeing Tianjin Composites (BTC), Vivian Zhang, General Manager, Merck China Healthcare, Grace Bin Pei, Chairwoman of the Board of Directors for Capacity Building Assessment Center (CBAC), Helen Hu, Deputy CEO, Head of Legal, Volvo Cars Asia Pacific, Jane Wong Pinter, Head of HR, Henkel Greater China, Andy Truong, Executive Director, AKD International Inc, Canada, Fernando Vallina, Lead Country Manager, ExxonMobil China, and Cindy Jensen, Executive Coach, & Founder, INPOWER ONE.
Lightning talks amplified the personal journeys of entrepreneurial women: Poh-Yian Koh, VP Operations, FedEx Express Inc. China, Roberta Lipson, Vice Chair of New Frontier Health and Founder of United Family Healthcare, and Shirley Wu, Senior VIP, Dell Greater China.
To close, all attendees participated in an interactive workshop guided by expert facilitators to exchange ideas on how to “Be the Change by Committing to Action”.
Women Leadership Roundtable in Shanghai
On August 25, the WEC and Selena Chu, Dow VP and WEC Co-chair, hosted a Women Leadership Roundtable facilitated by Joyce Renzhong Tan, Senior Specialist, Diversity Initiatives, NYU Shanghai. Women leaders from Chayora, Dow, Henkel, IHG, Milliken, Volvo Cars, and Wequality shared their experiences and views on how they identify and manage unconscious bias.
Key takeaways:
- Some women may impose self-limitations and having women executives as role models can give them the courage to leap forward.
- For women in male-dominated industries, some found it challenging while others saw it as an opportunity to leverage their gender for advancement.
- Having male support in the workplace and home is crucial for women’s advancement. Women have more societal pressures to take care of family.
- Monetizing the value of the caregiving role and giving it proper recognition could help to gain a higher respect for this important role that contributes to society whether by a man or a woman.
To avoid taking on too much, women need to let go of control and expectations of household responsibilities and let men do it their way.
ExxonMobil Workshop – Empowering All to be Inclusive Leaders
On October 18, WEC held its first Member Workshop on “Empowering All to be Inclusive Leaders” in partnership with ExxonMobil and attended by 50+ participants from their global team. The program began with a review of ExxonMobil’s commitment to DEI by Mariepascale Legoullon, PLT Global Manager followed by a 30-minute presentation from WEC’s Charlotte Smith, Program Director & Architect of the DEI Report and Diane Ho, Partner on the benefits and urgency of inclusion, as well as the WEC’s framework of six inclusive leadership traits: Self-awareness, Authenticity, Empathy, Transparency, Accountability and Passion. Through interactive exercises and group discussions, participants built on the definitions of these six traits and recommended strategies for developing them. The cross-regional, cross-cultural insights shared inspired some pragmatic actions that can be implemented in work and in life. We believe we achieved our objective to plant the idea that everyone plays a role in creating a positive and inclusive culture.
Speaking Engagements
ConocoPhillips Asia Pacific Emerging Women Leaders 2022 Program
As a WEC Member, ConocoPhillips is actively dedicated to positively impacting gender equity and the leadership gap in business. As part of their numerous DEI efforts, they have initiated the Emerging Women Leaders Program across their Asia-Pacific business. Through the program, women will have access to a series of tools, capacity-building workshops, and networking across the organization to help them on their leadership journey. On July 26, Su Cheng Harris-Simpson, WEC Founder and President, was invited to speak on the topic of Self-Awareness. Thanks to her 25+ plus years of professional experience in China, she was able to share her experiences, provide valuable insight, and offer helpful tips to emerging women leaders who are going through their self-awareness journey. Being part of women’s professional and personal development and empowering them to become aware of their unique superpower is what WEC is all about.
HiCOOL Global Entrepreneur Summit: Women’s Empowerment Innovation & Start-up Roundtable
Su Cheng Harris-Simpson had the pleasure of speaking at the 2022 HiCOOL Summit – a prestigious event that brings people together to celebrate innovation and tech – as part of the Women’s Empowerment Innovation & Start-up Roundtable, on August 27, in Beijing. The Women Empowerment Council (WEC) was also a supporting organization of this segment, alongside Microsoft, Women Digital Future, and UN Women. Su Cheng leveraged the platform to shine a light on the gender gap in tech and overall STEMM fields. By talking about WEC’s Girls in STEMM Program, she emphasized that encouraging young girls to participate in STEMM subjects early on is a crucial starting point to close the gender gap in STEMM fields.
WEConnect International Asia Pacific Conference 2022: “Connect and Grow Together”
On September 1st, WEConnect International hosted the 2022 Asia Pacific Conference, this year’s theme being “Connect and Grow Together”. The conference aims to provide opportunities to build the capacity of women business owners by featuring signature matchmaking activities. Keynote speakers included leaders from Accenture, IBM, J&J, ExxonMobil, and more. Su Cheng Harris-Simpson was featured as the leading speaker for the China Track segment. She connected with women entrepreneurs on topics such as diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), the link to supplier diversity, and addressed the struggles of going global during the pandemic. By sharing valuable tips and insights on how to leverage technology and partnerships to drive business and DEI, Su Cheng delivered an inspirational message that reminds the international community of women entrepreneurs and relevant stakeholders to support, connect, and grow together.
AmCham Shanghai’s 7th Annual WeForShe Conference
On October 25th, the 2022 WeForShe Conference gathered outstanding female leaders and business professionals to focus on how to manage into the future, the leadership skills needed for an uncertain world, and driving ESG impact and value. It included inspirational keynotes, a panel for leaders to share their views on managing the future, and a female Consul General panel. Diane Ho, WEC Partner, was invited to be the panel speaker on “Empowerment Talk” together with Marcia Chen, co-founder & CEO of Women’s Alliance Group, and Theresa Hudzinski, President of International Professional Women’s Society moderated by Diane Long, Managing Director of Xanadu Enterprise Shanghai. At the panel discussion, Diane Ho pointed out two major challenges most women face: double burden and double bind. Therefore, she emphasized the importance of fixing the system to accommodate women.
Upcoming Events
Shanghai – Nov 10th
Invited Guests: WEC member representatives, people managers from member companies
Topic: “Invisible” Obstacles in Perceptions and Processes towards Gender Equity
Purpose: Gain insights on ‘pain points’ for host companies: perceived lack of career advancement opportunities for women; real or perceived obstacles in decision making process; and find actionable solutions (best practices or ideas from discussions)
Shanghai – Nov 9th
Invited Guests: WEC member representatives, females in engineering and sales positions at bp
Topic: #amazing career for women @bp
Purpose: Raise women’s profiles and showcase women who have reached their professional goals, together with the male allies that contributed to women’s advancement in bp.
Beijing – November 17th
Invited guests: WEC member representatives, senior executives, and leaders in a position to shape and influence policies.
Topic: TBC
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