Personal reflections on International Women's Day

On Friday the 8th of March we celebrated proudly International Women’s Day at AbbVie Greece.

Not only recognizing the progress done by a great company supporting equal rights and development opportunities for women, but also inviting two exceptional new era Women in Politics: Sofia Zacharaki , the Minister of Social Cohesion and Family Affairs, who presented us great initiatives that support the rights of women and gives them space and tools to develop engaging in their multiple roles. And @Lilian Venetia Vildiridi, the General Secretary of the Ministry of Health, who highlighted great perspectives supporting health for women, but also women as Leaders in the Health Care System.

Still, one genuine question may come up. Why do we need to celebrate the 8th of March?

As a woman, I feel I need to answer transferring my personal perspective and views, working with women, supporting women, developing women every day for the last 20 years.

My answer will be simple.

Cause we are not there yet.

At least not at a place where I can say with certainty that being a woman does not influence your path towards career and personal development. More than the official numbers showing that women around the world still lag in compensation and benefits, career advancement and Board representation, let me give you another more invisible to grasp perspective.

Even when I see a woman that conquers the job, achieves the promotion, gets herself out there to ask for her rights, she is faced with challenges and mixed reactions.

Coming first from herself: The imposter syndrome, am I going to make it? Am I ready? Am I going to ask for the next opportunity, or wait stoically for someone to notice me? Am I going to get over the ‘guilt’ of not being able to combine the roles of career woman, manager, partner, mother, caregiver? All women we need to hear that we are good enough and that we don’t have to make a choice. We need to work out the solution. Sofia Zacharaki put it brilliantly in her fiery eyes ‘Ladies, we have a choice’.

Coming from the others: As a woman often you cannot get it right.

If you are pointing to results, you may be seen as ‘bossy’, authoritative, although in fact you don’t ‘play boss’, you are the boss! But what if you show emotion or a genuine wish to include others’ opinions? Your empathy maybe be perceived as weakness, not being at par with the guys. Women get comments like ‘Speak up more, be more aggressive’…. coming from both men and women alike. If on the other hand you show up with an extrovert profile and willingness to express yourself publicly, as tons of men in Politics and Business too, the question arises: Isn’t she too much? Does she need to do all that? @Lilian Venetia Vildiridi gave me a great perspective with a warm smile: ‘I just want to inspire the people around me’.

And also the dismissive comment you still may hear when a woman is selected for ?a role: ‘Maybe she took the promotion because of the quota target’. But what if we simply see that she worked super hard, had the most relevant experience, achieved results in her assignments, and inspired change in the organization?

Cause we need inspiration and help one another forward.

More than the set of impactful EED&I initiatives we are proudly sponsoring at AbbVie , I am a mentor of a brilliant Greek Executive that?is bringing impactful change in her company, partnering with like-minded groups of women executives and academics in Greece and abroad and I am also connecting with AbbVie Women Leaders to brainstorm on what we can do more, better, to support women where it mostly makes a difference, at their early stages of their career.

Recently I met again in person an academic woman I admire, Tatiana Kolovou who gave me an excellent tip that I am sharing with all today.‘Let s ask. Let’s enter our discomfort zone’?

And I am planning to put that in action. Starting with this article.

Labrina

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