Women’s Empowerment Working Group Multi-Stakeholder IV – “Advancing Women’s Empowerment Achieving Business Goals

Women’s Empowerment Working Group (WEG) initiated by IBCWE together with IGCN and UN Women held the fourth discussion forum. With the theme “Advancing Women’s Empowerment Achieving Business Goals”, this discussion forum was held on August 28, 2019 at Bina Nusantara University (BINUS) Jakarta. Opened by Andyni Khosasih, Community Development Center – Teach for Indonesia Manager, BINUS, said that BINUS is committed to gender equality. One manifestation of this is an increase in the number of women representatives on the BINUS Board of Directors.

The second opening by the Head of UN Women Indonesia, Ruangkhao Chanchai, said that Indonesia has a 30% higher gender gap than other Southeast Asian countries. Many women have not been represented in managerial positions, and to support women’s empowerment requires CEO commitment to WEPs.

the discussion session moderated by IBCWE Executive Director, Maya Juwita, invited as panelists were CFO Telkomtelstra, Ernest Vincent Hutagalung; Senior Partner Hadiputranto Hadinoto & Partner (HHP), Mita Guritno; and BINUS Lecturer and Founder of Nusantara Action, Frans Bona Simanjuntak.

Ernest Vincent Hutagalung said that women’s participation in the field of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) globally was still at the level of 20%. Telkomtelstra provides equal opportunities for women to pursue careers in the STEM field. In addition, Telkomtelstra also provides lactation space and flexible working hours that create good effects, such as a 6% increase in female workers and a 9% increase in technology usage. However, this is still far from the target of 30% female worker participation.

At HHP, Mita Guritno conveyed supporting national and international regulations related to gender equality. One of them is encouraging women at managerial level up to 40%. HHP also encourages men to be more involved in the issue, because gender equality is not only for women but also for men. On HHP there are policies such as the Young Mom Program, paternity leave, and counseling to support mental health for workers.

Frans Bona Simanjuntak, told his experience when working in the private sector, seen from the surface, did not appear to discriminate against women. However, when viewed more deeply the discrimination occurs as with outsourced employees, they do not get the same benefits as permanent workers.

Gender equality brings diversity in the decision-making process, this can bring innovation to problem solving. Companies must realize the contribution of diversity from decision making brings many benefits. This can be achieved if there is diversity at the decision-making level. The number of women represented is at least 30% at that level. From these compositions will be able to produce decisions that maximize the achievement of company goals. (admin)