On March 14th, S2M communications team was at the event devoted to the International Women’s Day – Women in Business, Women in Power , organized by 7days2go. Our colleague, Masha Moisseyeva, was one of the speakers there. Among some of the topics of the discussion during the event were the meaning of equality in the modern time, points of improvement, and how we can support each other in a pursuit of a common goal.
Masha presented her experiences as a young female entrepreneur, working on her own startup – Time Space and within Seats2Meet.com team. Other speakers included Marga Berlinski – Organizer of the Amsterdam Women Entrepreneurs Meetup, Marjon Melissen – Online Community Manager at WOMEN INC, Dana Cotorobai – Consulting Manager at RSM.nl, and Yvonne Koleczek – CMO at Unless.com.
All of the speakers are what is generally described as strong women, from different walks of life and professional backgrounds – from non-profit and theater to corporate and entrepreneurship. Coming from different cultures, these women were going through different struggles in their lives. For example, there is a large contrast between highly traditional life in Kazakhstan and life in the Netherlands, where equality is at the core of everything in the society. Therefore, the speakers were truly able to provide a varying views on the issues in question.
While most of the difficulties in our lives in the Netherlands cannot be attributed to our gender anymore, there are definitely some points where equality is still to be achieved, and this is something we should work on together to ensure a greater impact. This is not necessarily achieved with flashy slogans and fighting minor inconveniences, but with claiming our place where it is important to us, building successful careers and fulfilling our potential to the fullest. It is up to us to transform what unfortunately still takes place – an unnecessary gender competition, to a fruitful collaboration.
As stated by Masha, there is no point to divide business in “female” or “male” sub-categories, as we are all first and foremost people, all with our unique skills, experiences and expertise. We all should work together and help each other, instead of discriminating against one another.
The event finished up with informal networking, and the conversation continued further in a more laid back manner. Both the participants and the panelists came together to talk about collaboration opportunities. I truly believe that the best part of this kind of events is to join both international and local forces together to establish something meaningful.
