IBCWE Women Talent Network – The Importance of Self-Acceptance for Women in Caree

Women have proven more difficult to get ahead at work than men. Based on Accenture’s worldwide survey, women are 22% less likely to reach managerial levels than their male counterparts. By contrast, men were 47% more likely to reach the position of manager or senior director than their female counterparts.

Meanwhile, there are a number of social and economic barriers to equality in the workplace, including educational disparities, childcare and household responsibilities as well as cultural biases, as well as organizational culture that can hold women forward.

Women who struggle to advance to higher levels in the company are usually at the middle management level to the top level. In climbing this level there are several challenges that must be faced by women. Some challenges stem from the limited time women have to network because they have to manage roles as mothers, wives and professional workers.

IBCWE sees this as an opportunity to provide learning media for women from IBCWE member companies. The 70-20-10 Model for Learning and Development is a formula commonly used in the training profession to describe optimal learning resources by successful managers. Individuals gain 70 percent of their knowledge from work-related experience, 20 percent from interactions with others, and 10 percent from formal education events. IBCWE aims to provide a learning formula of 20 percent of the learning model by creating networking media specifically for women in middle level management who are on track for succession or promotion plans.

Participant criteria for IBCWE members are female workers in middle management who are on the path to promotion, in talent management programs, and star performers. Women workers must also have cumulative professional experience of at least 10 years (not necessarily working in the same company). As well as being willing to participate in the network session program for one year. From these criteria, there were 26 participants from IBCWE members who registered came from Kantar Indonesia, PT Unilever Tbk, Accenture Indonesia, PT HM Sampoerna Tbk, The Dharmawangsa Hotel, PT Telkomtelstra Tbk, PT Adis Dimension Footwear, Danone Indonesia, and three companies from Sintesa Group, namely PT Menara Duta, PT Tira Austenite Tbk and PT Sintesa Duta Sejahtera.

The activity carried out on September 4, 2019 with the theme Self-Acceptance was facilitated by Dynergie using the art therapy method to explore participants’ viewpoints about themselves, their aspirations, challenges and what they can do. The discussion themes in the next classes will revolve around career development, personal development and sharing between women from various companies and industries. Participants felt several benefits from this training, including the importance of self-acceptance, the opportunity for self-reflection, and the opportunity to pause and ask yourself, “how are you today?” Participants expect that in the next session to discuss effective communication for women, foster self-confidence, and manage barriers that come from companies with a patriarchal culture.