Women need to be their own biggest champion, says MDEC CEO

Women need to be their own biggest champion and never hesitate to grab career-efining moments, says Malaysia Digital Economy Corp (MDEC) Chief Executive Officer, Datuk Yasmin Mahmood.

Speaking at the #SheMeansBusiness Facebook Live Event in conjunction with the International Women's Day today, Yasmin said, most women in the workforce adopted a passive attitude in their jobs instead of being more aggressive with what they deserved.

Yasmin said she had met many talented women in the workforce who thought that they would be given proper recognition without them demanding for it so long as they stuck to their jobs.

"It does not work that way. Women need to be their biggest champion and grab those career-defining moments, which can be as simple as demanding for a higher salary," she said.

She said merely doing their routine work and sitting on the sidelines would not do these women and their capabilities any justice.

It has been proven that women participation in the workforce was directly correlated to the company's performance, whereby a study by business consultancy firm McKinsey revealed that women empowerment and gender equality would bring about US$12 trillion (US$1 = RM4.45) worth of economic impact by 2025.

"In my early days of being a career woman, I have had bosses who would address the women employees with inappropriate nicknames and get away with using impolite statements on them.

"Now, of course, those are no longer permitted and therefore I think we have come a long way," she said.

However, Yasmin said, more work needed to be done given that even giant technology companies still had low women participation such as Google (17 per cent), Microsoft (15 per cent) and Facebook (15 per cent).

"In Malaysia, we have a 30 per cent target of women in the boardroom. We have moved the needle quite a fair bit to 15 per cent currently from seven per cent in 2010.

"In MDEC, we are happy to say that we have 45 per cent women participation in the senior leadership team," she said. - BERNAMA