There is something nobody should be able to take from a woman. It’s her determination, her aspiration for evolving and growing in every field of her life. Being able to choose those fields isn’t just a given right our grandmothers fought for, but it’s freedom of will, which every single human being should have. Without a compromise.
But, unfortunately, it’s not that simple. Gender equality and balance are in a much better place nowadays than they were several decades ago, but the disbalance is still present in our society, especially in our workplaces. The gender pay gap is still significant – in 2019, women earn 79 cents for every dollar earned by men. In other words, this means that the median salary for men is roughly 21 percent higher than the median salary for women. Nobody says one or other should be paid more, but we need to talk and raise awareness about inequality. More importantly, we need to start doing that individually.
Initiatives like The 1st International Women in Travel & Tourism Forum in Reykjavik are a great place to start. International business leaders and professionals are combining their knowledge, experience, and influence to make a solid difference. Who can better talk about being a woman in this busy and rushed world than women themselves? The same women can and will point out red flags in their niches, but also can give warm and inviting advice to all the others who are maybe currently stuck in a not so pleasant situation.
INTIMINA as a brand faced towards women has a strong attitude regarding inequality and throughout their everyday worldwide business strives to lessen the latter. The same goes for gender balance. To achieve a desirable level of gender balance, organizations and companies must reconsider their existing definitions and assumptions about skills, career paths, and critical success factors. Every diploma weighs the same. Earning one demands dedication, strong will, and excellence. The same things firms, corporations, and all employers should take into consideration during the enrolling process. One’s gender can’t and shouldn’t be the sole factor regarding employment, nor should it determine one’s salary, position or general career path.
But how specifically and efficiently that change can be done? Through the empowerment. Most importantly, through the empowerment of young women who will then tailor our future on this planet. This means giving opportunities and open doors to students, young professionals, young mothers, and every single other woman – religion, language, race or status aside. Those opportunities lie in formal and non-formal lifelong education, but also in a sturdy chain of support and possibilities. But, we need to bear one thing in mind – all those things mean nothing if women don’t feel safe. Opportunities may exist, but if even one woman is not taking it and sees it as a risk, we still have a lot of work (and education) to do.
Gender balanced world for INTIMINA is a world of diversity, too. We believe how there shouldn’t be diversification on male and female positions, jobs or professions. If one woman is strong and determined enough to pursue what she loves, there should be no obstacles, especially not something like old-fashion and outdated patriarchy views. The same goes for men in, so-called “female” professions and niches.
The thing we all should consider, in this capitalistically oriented day and era, is how we could measure success other than by the number of zero’s on our bank account. Of course, everybody needs an income to live and companies and corporations need the money fluctuation, but there is one thing everybody, individually or collectively can change. We could measure our success by the number of young women we’ve helped, by the number of doors we opened for them and by the volume of safety they feel in today’s world.