April 28, 2023
As part of our Community pillar in our 5-pillar strategy, during this year’s Women’s History Month, we wanted to share how we celebrated the vital role women of Valtech play worldwide.
Our celebrations spanned all of Women’s History Month rather than simply having one event on International Women’s Day, and we wanted to detail some of our activities for you.
On March 9, we featured a phenomenal and energizing keynote from Cathy O’Dowd. Cathy is the first woman to climb Mount Everest from both sides. She is an accomplished explorer, having spent much of her life on expeditions in unchartered territory, working with people from all different backgrounds and cultures, where good trust and collaboration truly mean the difference between life and death.
Cathy’s session, “Think like an explorer: Going where no one has ever gone before,” focused on the importance of authentic leadership. Some of her key insights included understanding how to utilize your team’s strengths to ensure awareness of their weaknesses and why putting ego to the side is the best path forward.
Her top tips for multicultural collaboration are:
- Have a clear decision-maker – all perspectives should be heard and digested, and there must be a decision-maker to ensure conversations do not remain stagnant or paused.
- Always be willing to have difficult conversations – uncomfortable conversations are often pushed aside for frictionless collaboration. But that does not resolve the issue. Talk openly and honestly about the problem and possible solutions so everyone can move on the same footing.
- Spend time understanding everyone’s strengths and weaknesses – by doing this, you ensure you complement one another’s skill sets as a team. Nobody is perfect, but you can form a powerful team together.
Women’s history month celebrations from around the world
Our celebrations spanned across the globe.
We spotlighted some of our brilliant women at Valtech on LinkedIn, who shared their inspiring stories. From Mexico, Dubai, India, Ukraine, and the U.S., get to know Nora, Jetzubelly, Tejaswini, Viktoriya, and Mikhala. These women and their stories are as truly inspiring and impactful as they are.
Our female Valtechies in France gathered in the office, alongside our Managing Director Serge Biscard, to share their experiences as women in the industry and their insights on how we can all come together to embrace equity.
The newly-formed Working Parents group in our Dubai office hosted a fruitful discussion about work-life balance as a working parent, the importance of family support when raising children, and creating a supportive workplace culture. As part of our efforts to spread awareness around International Women's Day, one of the key topics centered on stay-at-home dads and the stereotypes that come with it.
To celebrate Women’s History Month, our team in India invited Indian social entrepreneur, Chetna Gala Sinha, to share her inspiring and impactful journey. Chetna is dedicated to empowering women in rural India by teaching them entrepreneurial skills, access to land, and means of production.
In 2006, Sinha founded the first business school for rural women in India. In January 2018. She was co-chair of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and a Co-Chair of Financial Inclusion at the Argentina W20 Summit (2018). Later that year, the president of India awarded her the Nari Shakti Puraskar – the highest civilian award for recognizing the achievements and contributions of women in India.
In our North American offices, local leaders hosted an eye-opening session where people could write about negative behaviors and actions towards women they have experienced, witnessed, or heard of. The focus was on things we do not realize or might not be aware of, mainly microaggressions, minimizing, derogatory, dismissive behavior, focusing on appearance instead, etc. The second part of the session focused on moving forward with solutions, and these outputs are now being formed into a guide for the region.
In Latin America, 80 of our Valtechies joined a spirited discussion about balancing work, family, and motherhood in today’s faced-paced world, as well as how women can support other women by empowering one another at the workplace.
Finally, our Singapore office was the place to be for all the incredible women working there as we hosted a small but significant celebration to honor their fantastic work and all the beautiful ways they make Valtech a better place.
Celebrating, recognizing, and honoring the impact of women at Valtech is something we do every day, embracing diversity and fostering inclusion is key to our success.
If you would like to learn more about Valtech’s Diversity & Inclusion strategy, have a look at our D&I 2022 Report.
