WEquality

We learned a lot, we got opportunities to put our creativity to work, we developed professionally and personally with a little help from each other and from our client, coach and mentor! We hope you have a glimpse of our experience on this little Tumblr page that we made sure to put our progress, feelings and struggles in (and a lot of love, too!).

But most importantly, this is our final project which we are so, so, so proud of:

https://wequalitypremium.wordpress.com/

A wordpress blog! You can thereby find our main findings in the shape of infographs, but also different multimedia materials such as videos, tedtalks, podcasts and interviews (conducted by us!). We know you’re blown away already, but there is more! You can also find practical solutions for companies and firms to assess and improve their gender diversity policy. Click around and let us know how you like it!

You thought that was it? 

We also have a Facebook page! 

https://www.facebook.com/WEqualitypremium

Premium was a journey rich of experiences and learning for each member of the WEquality team. We learned a lot about our individual strengths and weaknesses. Our coach, mentors and client provided us with precious guidance about how we could improve our performance and put forward our best skills.       

Coming from different backgrounds and specializations, and having different personalities too, we complemented each other in the tasks to fulfill. However, this was not always easy! Being such a diverse team, we encountered some difficulties on our way. Sometimes we misunderstood each other, some other times we were not sure how to go about things, other times again we had divergent ideas as to how to fulfill our tasks. However, we overcame these obstacles by being upfront, kind, and communicating with each other. 

The meeting with our coach was a crucial moment for us to face our struggles, both individually and as a team. Annika helped us understand what we expected from the programme and from each other, and she guided us in the delicate process of evaluating each other’s performances and giving feedback. This has allowed us to bond personally and professionally as a team.

We can confidently say that we love working together as a team. Looking back at this journey, we all feel so lucky and grateful to have been able to work with each other, learn from each other and support each other. Thanks Premium for bringing us together!

Storytelling!

Our overall group process with our set milestones.

As you can see we have come a long way but there are still some important steps to undertake in order to finish the project. 

Psst! Interested in getting to know whether or not you are biased toward gender & leadership?

WEquality is currently developing a toolkit aimed at understanding, assessing and improving the approach of gender diversity of individuals and companies. In order to do this yourselves, today we propose you to take an Implicit Association Test (IAT) concerning gender and leadership which you can find here.

Working on the development of infographics for our future website until late this evening while teaching my foreign teammates some Dutch songs.

(I don’t think they are long enough in The Nederlands to understand the lyrics tho🙊)

See ya! Esmee

Although it is quite some time we last posted an update we have certainly not sit still. So, what’s on the WEquality planning for this week?!

On Monday’s we have a meeting to define our milestones for the next couple of weeks and after the meeting with have a skype meeting with our coach and our client in order to discuss our latest findings and our drafted future milestones, since time is FLYING!

On Tuesday’s we have our regular meeting and we hope to really speed up after that meeting discussing the contents and the layout of the infographics we want to use for our website. 

During the week we are still busy with collecting interviews with companies such as Catalyst, Philips, ASML, and Medtronic. And maybe even more important we are digging deeper and deeper into the literature, working on our business case and thinking about some toolkits for the website!

As you probably can hear, we certainly don’t have to be bored this week. In order to start off the week with a smile, we have a short riddle for you:

A young boy and his father are on their way home from soccer practice when a distracted driver crosses the center line and hits them head-on. The father dies at the scene of this horrible car accident, but the boy is still alive when the emergency medical technicians arrive. The injured boy is transported in an ambulance to the hospital, where's he taken immediately into surgery.

However, the awaiting surgeon steps out of the operating room and says, "Call Dr. Baker stat to the operating room. I can't operate on this boy. He's my son!"

The question: Who is the surgeon?

Team WEquality had a great night yesterday full of great food and drinks, but most importantly we went home with a good overview of all the projects! It seems like we’re not the only team who puts a lot of effort in their project😜

We are grateful to each and every one who was present at the pitch and provided us with feedback and encouragement. We cherish both things as necessary ways to keep growing, learning and staying motivated! We would like to thank Defence for Children for their positive feedback. We will make sure to keep our Tumblr page just as pretty for the future. In addition, we would like to thank Kids in Control for their points of improvement. We will take a critical approach towards our literature search. Finally, we would like to thank Tout Maastricht for the critical question about differences in approaches toward gender inequality in different countries. We will take in consideration all the information and feedback we have received during the evening and discuss these during our next group meeting!

We are also grateful for having the chance to listen to the amazing ideas of other teams. We believe last evening was a rewarding chapter for all teams, after the hard work we put in our projects. Our team cherished it as an opportunity to celebrate and show appreciation and thankfulness for being able to work together. We must say that, with all our differences, with like each other a lot!

This is how happy we were after pitching and receiving a lot of useful feedback, questions and encouragement from all of you (and also the great food and present offered by PREMIUM!):

Cheers!

We also wish to thank our beloved long-distance team member Alejandro who contributes as much as we do from Spain. He cheered with us from there!

Ever realized gender inequality is still a problem in organizations nowadays?! Want to know more about gender diversity in business and the process WEquality is going through in order to find ways to tackle the diversity problem? 

Well then come see the WEquality5-minute pitch next Tuesday!!!

In occasion of International Women’s Day on March 8, Alejandro had the chance to attend the march in Madrid. Marches throughout Spain have been organized by the 8 March Commission, whose manifesto calls for “a society free of sexist oppression, exploitation and violence”. Alejandro documented this experience to us as an inspiring one, and the biggest demonstration he has ever seen.

5.3 million Spanish women joined a 24-hour strike where they ditched domestic chores and work, and they spent no money. Spanish women want to show the world that, without their participation, everything would stop functioning. This is what we want to show too! 

“Si nosotras nos detenemos, el mundo se detiene!”

‘Be inspired. Make a difference.’

McKinsey invites female students and experienced professionals based in Europe, the Middle East and Africa to join the three-day-during 5th Next Generation Women Leaders event in Paris 2018.

In this exclusive three-day workshop, McKinsey will offer the opportunity to explore the importance of women in leadership and the impact they are having on the economy. Additionally, during this event you will also work on you personal leadership styles by playing to your strengths and understand how to grow your potential. 

Since 1908, the 8th of March has been the day when comen come together to demand everything- from the vote, to equal pay, from an end to domestic violence, to full gender equality. 

If you’re interested in the current realities and struggles faced by women in today’s society there is an interesting event tonight in the Statenzaal from 19:00-21:00. Prof. Mr. Cees Flinterman and Dr. Ingrid Westerdorp will be present to discuss all the above named topics. 

Unfortunately, duty was calling for Alejandro, one of our beloved team members. He will be cycling* back to Spain today after having lived in The Netherlands for almost 7 months now. But no need to be sad because he will continue working on the project under the Spanish sun.🌞

We hope the lunches in Spain will be bigger though;)

*Although being very integrated into the Dutch culture, the cycling part we’re not 100% sure about...  

After a previous meeting with Susanne from Maris et al., we had our first skype meeting today. Although Susanne was sick with the flu, she armed herself with a cup of tea and the enthusiasm that always distinguishes her to get us all through a very productive talk.

In this meeting, we presented Susanne with our strategy to convince companies to invest in gender equality. Our master strategy is, in short, to find companies that show a good record of gender diversity in the workforce, as well as in top leadership positions. The purpose of this is to build a business case: these companies will be used as positive examples for other companies of how one can benefit from investing in gender equality in the workforce. The companies that are lucky enough to be selected by our amazing team will be posed a questionnaire concerning the motivations, methods, causes and consequences of their investment of gender equality. We cannot reveal all of our master strategy yet, so stay tuned if you are curious about it (we know you are!).

Susanne gave us brilliant tips as to how approach companies and actually get a reply from them. These tips were not only useful for the project, but for anyone that is attempting to contact a potential employer, teacher, businessman or extremely busy people in general. Feel sad you were not a part of this meeting? Not to worry! If you stay tuned, we might reveal these life-saving tips with you :)

We also want to provide you with a brief introduction of your client:

Maris et al.

Susanne created the company Maris et al. 

Maris et al. compiles a suitable interdisciplinary team of experts in order to deliver optimal customization. Susanne has two daughters and ever since they were born she realized that men and women do not have equal opportunities in business. This (gender)inequality is the reason Susanne is looking for new strategies to convince companies to invest in gender equality. 

Became interested in Maris et al.? Go to www.marisetal.com for more information!

Here at WEquality, we work very hard to fight gender inequality. But it can happen to anyone to get stuck, or be unsure how to proceed…

… But do not worry! Our amazing mentor Mister Van Der Lugt knows how to get us right back on track!💪🏻

Inspiring video from Shell