If I look back to when we started Sampark in 1994, there weren’t many women working in the industry, and certainly few in our fledgling agency. Years later, the perception of the industry itself has undergone a complete transformation – a sea change. Public relations is now a fully-recognized profession, shedding its label as a soft skill.
Today within Ketchum Sampark more than half of our employees are women; several of which are in leadership positions. This itself endorses our ethos of being an equal opportunity employer. Our women employees enjoy equal power and position within the organization, and pose a healthy competition to their male counterparts. We pride ourselves on eliminating gender bias from our structure and compensation practices.
It seems to me that public relations calls for empathy in understanding complex situations, multitasking and creativity – these are skills that are inherent in women – and drawing upon these skills, she can help deliver the best results.
Although women in Asia Pacific are increasingly more educated than their male counterparts, progress towards gender parity is still sluggish. This is especially true in areas of business leadership, business ownership and political participation, according to a recent MasterCard (*client) survey. In view of this, we at Ketchum Sampark are especially proud to say that many of our clients in the financial sector – not most – are women.
Tuesday was International Women’s Day, and we celebrated the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women all around the world.
It’s also a moment in time, I think, to reflect on the many women who have made a difference in our own lives, those who have made sacrifices and paved the way to a better life for each of us. It’s an occasion to acknowledge that whatever we do as individuals to support gender equality, whatever our businesses and its leaders are doing, whatever progress we are making, we can and must do more.
The International Women’s Day campaign theme this year was #PledgeForParity, which asked men and women alike to pledge to take a concrete step to help achieve gender parity more quickly.
That single step starts with understanding how each of us – you – can help women and girls achieve their ambitions. Then, most importantly, doing something about it.
“How important it is to recognize our he-roes… and she-roes!” – Maya Angelou
