International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month in March marked an opportunity to celebrate women at Zoom and take part in amazing and insightful conversations across our company. As the global lead of Women@Zoom, our Employee Resource Group focused on uplifting women in the workplace, I’m incredibly proud of the ways in which we support gender equality in our hiring practices, employee benefits, and internal initiatives like this.
Hundreds of employees joined our Women’s History Month speaker series and International Women’s Day conversations. Zoomies also shared on social media how they #ChooseToChallenge gender bias in the workplace.
Here’s a look at our month-long celebration of women’s history:
International Women’s Day
Spearheaded by Women@Zoom in partnership with Zoom’s Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) team and Happy Crew, our International Women’s Day celebration featured three sessions for our global Zoom workforce.
Two sessions featured panels of women leaders who shared their experience building their career — often in male-dominated fields — and offered advice for other women. Find some of our favorite quotes below.
Clockwise from top left: Zoom host Ceri-Anne Smith and International Women’s Day panelists Iravati Damle, Tien Tien Sin, and Larah Teng.Clockwise from top left: International Women’s Day panelist Jill Price, Women@Zoom leader Christy Flis, panelist Laura Padilla, and panelist Tamika Puckett.
Our India-based team held a fun, interactive session featuring a virtual escape room activity called “Sheroes,” and welcomed guest speaker Sanober Pardiwalla — known as Bollywood’s first stuntwoman — who talked about paving the way for female action stars with her death-defying stunts.
Lifting up women in local communities
As part of our International Women’s Day celebration, we asked our panel speakers to nominate local women’s rights organizations to receive grant funding from Zoom Cares, our social impact program. We’re proud to provide grant funding to Psydeh, a women’s rights nonprofit working with rural and indigenous women in Mexico, and Manas, an organization with a gender justice program supporting women in India.
Women’s History Month
Following International Women’s Day, we kicked off a month of conversation around the contributions of women throughout history, as well as their achievements and experiences today.
Art historian Rose Balston led a passionate discussion about how women throughout history have used art as a medium for political and personal empowerment.
Clockwise from top left: Zoom host Mahsa Abadi; Rose Balston, founding director of Artscapes; Zoom host Alexis Armstrong.
We also held a three-part series on women’s health and wellness, diving into this important topic to help our attendees feel educated, empowered, and confident about advocating for their health.
Women’s health coach and yoga instructor Brittany D. Costa talked about her personal journey with cancer, healing, and what it means to be “healthy,”; Jennifer Haskin, Ph.D., from Arizona State University discussed the history of women’s health, including ways in which women’s pain and symptoms are traditionally overlooked; and Sarah Peterson from Collective Health shared how women can choose a healthcare provider who will partner with them to maximize their health.
And, our chief operating officer, Aparna Bawa, led a mini-lesson on Women’s History Month for more than 1,400 employees during our company all-hands!
Celebrating women’s strength
In a year that’s been especially devastating for professional women, with so many losing their jobs or forced to leave the workforce during the pandemic, we’re glad to be able to come together to celebrate the strength and courage of women around the world.
We’re incredibly grateful to all our speakers, including our own Zoomies, for sharing their experiences, supporting other women, and choosing to challenge inequality so all women can shine.
By: Christy Flis
Title: Women’s History Month: A Time to Celebrate, Support, and Uplift
Sourced From: blog.zoom.us/womens-history-month-2021/
Published Date: Wed, 31 Mar 2021 18:01:51 +0000