Working Women Leading a Social Revolution in Pakistan

While Fareed Zakaria, Nick Kristoff and other talking heads are still stuck on the old stereotypes of Muslim women, the status of women in Muslim societies is rapidly changing, and there is a silent social revolution taking place with rising number of women joining the workforce and moving up the corporate ladder in Pakistan.



"More of them(women) than ever are finding employment, doing everything from pumping gasoline and serving burgers at McDonald’s to running major corporations", says a report in the latest edition of Businessweek magazine.



Beyond company or government employment, there are a number of NGOs focused on encouraging self-employment and entrepreneurship among Pakistani women by offering skills training and microfinancing. Kashf Foundation led by a woman CEO and BRAC are among such NGOs. They all report that the success and repayment rate among female borrowers is significantly higher than among male borrowers.



In rural Sindh, the PPP-led government is empowering women by granting over 212,864 acres of government-owned agriculture land to landless peasants in the province. Over half of the farm land being given is prime nehri (land irrigated by canals) farm land, and the rest being barani or rain-dependent. About 70 percent of the 5,800 beneficiaries of this gift are women. Other provincial governments, especially the Punjab government have also announced land allotment for women, for which initial surveys are underway, according to ActionAid Pakistan.



Both the public and private sectors are recruiting women in Pakistan's workplaces ranging from Pakistani military, civil service, schools, hospitals, media, advertising, retail, fashion industry, publicly traded companies, banks, technology companies, multinational corporations and NGOs, etc.



Here are some statistics and data that confirm the growth and promotion of women in Pakistan's labor pool:

1. A number of women have moved up into the executive positions, among them Unilever Foods CEO Fariyha Subhani, Engro Fertilizer CFO Naz Khan, Maheen Rahman CEO of IGI Funds and Roshaneh Zafar Founder and CEO of Kashf Foundation.

2. Women now make up 4.6% of board members of Pakistani companies, a tad lower than the 4.7% average in emerging Asia, but higher than 1% in South Korea, 4.1% in India and Indonesia, and 4.2% in Malaysia, according to a February 2011 report on women in the boardrooms.

3. Female employment at KFC in Pakistan has risen 125 percent in the past five years, according to a report in the NY Times.

4. The number of women working at McDonald’s restaurants and the supermarket behemoth Makro has quadrupled since 2006.



5. There are now women taxi drivers in Pakistan. Best known among them is Zahida Kazmi described by the BBC as "clearly a respected presence on the streets of Islamabad".



6. Several women fly helicopters and fighter jets in the military and commercial airliners in the state-owned and private airlines in Pakistan.

Here are a few excerpts from the recent Businessweek story written by Naween Mangi:

About 22 percent of Pakistani females over the age of 10 now work, up from 14 percent a decade ago, government statistics show. Women now hold 78 of the 342 seats in the National Assembly, and in July, Hina Rabbani Khar, 34, became Pakistan’s first female Foreign Minister. “The cultural norms regarding women in the workplace have changed,” says Maheen Rahman, 34, chief executive officer at IGI Funds, which manages some $400 million in assets. Rahman says she plans to keep recruiting more women for her company.

Much of the progress has come because women stay in school longer. More than 42 percent of Pakistan’s 2.6 million high school students last year were girls, up from 30 percent 18 years ago. Women made up about 22 percent of the 68,000 students in Pakistani universities in 1993; today, 47 percent of Pakistan’s 1.1 million university students are women, according to the Higher Education Commission. Half of all MBA graduates hired by Habib Bank, Pakistan’s largest lender, are now women. “Parents are realizing how much better a lifestyle a family can have if girls work,” says Sima Kamil, 54, who oversees 1,400 branches as head of retail banking at Habib. “Every branch I visit has one or two girls from conservative backgrounds,” she says.

Some companies believe hiring women gives them a competitive advantage. Habib Bank says adding female tellers has helped improve customer service at the formerly state-owned lender because the men on staff don’t want to appear rude in front of women. And makers of household products say female staffers help them better understand the needs of their customers. “The buyers for almost all our product ranges are women,” says Fariyha Subhani, 46, CEO of Unilever Pakistan Foods, where 106 of the 872 employees are women. “Having women selling those products makes sense because they themselves are the consumers,” she says.

To attract more women, Unilever last year offered some employees the option to work from home, and the company has run an on-site day-care center since 2003. Engro, which has 100 women in management positions, last year introduced flexible working hours, a day-care center, and a support group where female employees can discuss challenges they encounter. “Today there is more of a focus at companies on diversity,” says Engro Fertilizer CFO Khan, 42. The next step, she says, is ensuring that “more women can reach senior management levels.”








The gender gap in South Asia remains wide, and women in Pakistan still face significant obstacles. But there is now a critical mass of working women at all levels showing the way to other Pakistani women.

I strongly believe that working women have a very positive and transformational impact on society by having fewer children, and by investing more time, money and energies for better nutrition, education and health care of their children. They spend 97 percent of their income and savings on their families, more than twice as much as men who spend only 40 percent on their families, according to Zainab Salbi, Founder, Women for Women International, who recently appeared on CNN's GPS with Fareed Zakaria.

Here's an interesting video titled "Redefining Identity" about Pakistan's young technologists, including women, posted by Lahore-based 5 Rivers Technologies:



Related Links:

Haq's Musings

Status of Women in Pakistan

Microfinancing in Pakistan

Gender Gap Worst in South Asia

Status of Women in India

Female Literacy Lags in South Asia

Land For Landless Women

Are Women Better Off in Pakistan Today?

Growing Insurgency in Swat

Religious Leaders Respond to Domestic Violence

Fighting Agents of Intolerance

A Woman Speaker: Another Token or Real Change

A Tale of Tribal Terror

Mukhtaran Mai-The Movie

World Economic Forum Survey of Gender Gap

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Comment by Riaz Haq on July 10, 2014 at 9:53am

One recently became the country’s first female fighter jet pilot. The other is CEO of a group of schools. Yet another left an engineering degree to become captain of the national cricket team.
Though terrorism has plagued Pakistan, women are bravely making inroads in different fields, defying all odds to represent the modern face of their country.
News and images of honour killings and acid attacks on women in the country often make headlines around the world, but the progress made by Pakistan’s women is hardly shown.
Women in Pakistan are building impressive careers, launching successful, independent ventures of their own and training young girls to follow in their footsteps.
With impressive resumes and university pedigrees that rival most male executives, these women are making waves.
“Most women in Pakistan are extremely progressive in their presence in every field whether it is politics, sports, entertainment, fashion, performing arts or business but all we need is to portray them positively,” said Ambreen K, who is pioneer member of the Pakistan Change Initiative (PCI) — a Dubai-based group working to highlight positive image of Pakistan. Ambreen said the PCI strives to present the positive side of the country through various events.
“We recently held an event in Dubai to showcase modern face of Pakistani women and their contribution to the society and it was a big hit,” she said.
Though traditional gender roles still exist for many women in Pakistan, some are making impressive gains.
They are part of a growing cadre of women who are determined to move forward despite threats from hardliners.
Women make up slightly more than half of Pakistan’s population of 180 million. Though only 17 per cent of them are considered “economically active”, given the chance they have proved their mettle in every field.
The women in Pakistan have never been so proud as when First Lt Ayesha Farooq became the first female fighter pilot in the Pakistan Air Force in 2013.
She had joined the Air Force at the age of 17 after battling to convince her mother to let her realise her dreams.
Cultural practices used to prevent many women from working outside their homes in Pakistan. Today, that is changing. More women are now leading a number of successful businesses in various industries while creating previously unheard of opportunities for other women.
One such woman is Fatima, an educationist and model in Lahore.
Fatima is the chief executive officer (CEO) of Beaconhouse School System, a network of private schools founded by her mother-in-law. Another example is Sana Mir, captain of Pakistan’s women’s cricket team, who has become a great inspiration for girls to join sports. Mir was enrolled in an engineering degree at a national university, but left to pursue her passion for cricket.
Pilates instructor Zainab Abbas was determined to be different when she opened her fitness studio, Route2Pilates, in Lahore after receiving training in Bangkok, Thailand. She carries out rehabilitation workouts for people with joint problems as well as specialised workouts for pregnant women.
Zahra Afridi chose to be an interior designer and runs her own interior design company. Her most recent project was the Classic Rock Coffee café in Islamabad. She is also an avid kick-boxer and regularly trains to stay fit.

http://gulfnews.com/news/world/pakistan/beyond-terror-and-taliban-p...

Comment by Riaz Haq on September 22, 2014 at 9:35pm

#‎Pakistan‬ squash star Maria Toor of South Waziristan raises voice for equality at ‪#‎AsianGames2014‬ via @rapplerdotcom http://www.rappler.com/sports/world/69831-pakistan-squash-equality-...
INCHEON, South Korea- As a child Maria Toorpakay Wazir had to dress as a boy to be able to play sports in Pakistan and now as the country's number one women's squash player she says there is still too much resistance.

Toorpakay, competing at the Asian Games in South Korea, vowed not to stop helping girls in Pakistan overcome discrimination and cultural obstacles even though she has received threats for her work.

"I feel that this is my responsibility," said Toorpakay after she was beaten by Hong Kong's Annie Au in the women's singles late Sunday, September 21. "I have to raise my voice for the other girls."

Toorpakay's family comes from Waziristan, the lawless tribal area in northwest Pakistan bordering Afghanistan. Malala Yousafzai, the acclaimed teenaged activist for girls' education, comes from the same region.
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Toorpakay at first competed in weightlifting, frequently beating the boys at tournaments. But her father made her switch to squash, where her gender was discovered.

After being required to produce a birth certificate to play squash at the age of 16, the truth about Toorpakay came out and she was bullied by other players.

Toorpakay said Pakistan is changing – but very slowly.

"Always there are people who do support this logic but there are people who still resist this logic," she said.

But Pakistan's number one women's squash player believes the tide cannot now be turned back. Toorpakay said her rise in international squash should be an example to other young women in Pakistan.

"I have to give them the same opportunity so that they become champions too," she said.

Toorpakay turned professional in 2006 and came third in the World Junior Women's Championship in 2009.

"This is a beautiful sport, and today I feel that God has given me a chance to come up to such position," she said.

She vowed to help Pakistan's women to emerge from the shadows through sport, saying it had helped her overcome her tough life in one of the world's most dangerous regions.

"Squash is my lord and I've worked so hard to get to this position," she said. - Rappler.com

Comment by Riaz Haq on December 6, 2014 at 9:40pm

MEERAN PUR, Pakistan (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Azeema Khatoon, a mother of five, has spent most of her life laboring in Pakistan's sunbaked cotton fields for less than $2 a day.

Last year, she and a group of around 40 women struggling to feed and clothe their families on their meager wages did something almost unheard for poor women working in rural Pakistan - they went on strike. The gamble paid off.

Khatoon, 35, says she has nearly doubled her wage in the past year, now taking home $3.50 a day compared to $2, with her success just one story cited by labor activists to encourage rural women to band together and form a united workforce.

Agricultural wages in Pakistan have a massive impact on women, and in turn on their families. About 74 percent of working women aged 15 and are employed in agriculture, according to the International Labour Organisation.

The 2014 Global Gender Gap Report published by the World Economic Forum ranked Pakistan as the second worst country in the world in gender equality after Yemen.

Many women are employed informally on low earnings and with limited protection, with women's agricultural wages falling to an average of $1.46 a day in 2012 from around $1.68 in 2007, said the ODI in its recent Rural Wages in Asia report.

On top of the meager wages, women laborers also tell labor activists that landlords or managers will sometimes try to cheat them of their rightful money because they cannot read the records. Sometimes bosses sexually harass them.

Heat stroke, snake bites, exposure to pesticides and cuts on their hands from handling the rough cotton bolls are other hazards of their daily toil.

Khatoon and others have started bringing their school-age children to check the books, or tie knots in the edge of their colorful saris to count how many days they have worked.

"Even though they can't read the numbers of letters, they can say I have worked one day for each knot," said Javed Hussain, the head of the Sindh Community Foundation, which aims to improve the socio-economic conditions of communities and has trained 2,600 women in skills like bargaining and labor rights.

Muhammad Ali Talpur, the director of the government-linked Pakistan Central Cotton Committee, says owners are sympathetic to the workers' problems but warns paying much higher wages may drive Pakistan's cotton farmers out of business.

"Cotton producers are being squeezed by low prices and producers are having a hard time to meet their costs," he said.

Global cotton prices have fallen, hitting a five-year low this summer due to slowing demand from China, a glut in the market, and growing popularity of manmade fibers.

Pakistan produces about 13 million bales a year from a world total of about 119 million bales. This year the government has already bought one million bales to try to shore up the price.

Hussain said the Sindh Community Foundation talks to small landlords and trains workers how to read market prices, trying to ensure there is negotiation, not confrontation.

He said the bigger landlords weren't usually willing to negotiate over wages and there was no legislation protecting casual agricultural workers but small owners did often sympathize with their workers.

Karim Ullah, who owns a small cotton farm near Meeran Pur, agreed to pay his workers $3 per day this year but said he couldn't raise wages further unless cotton prices rose.

"We pay wages according to the rate at which the cotton is sold. Only if the going price increases can I pay the pickers more," he said. "Also, I'm just a small farmer. It's the big landlords with hundreds of acres who set the rate."

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/12/06/us-pakistan-cotton-wideri...

Comment by Riaz Haq on December 7, 2014 at 7:44pm

In Pakistan, a skilled birth attendant delivers health and safety for mothers and children

“It makes me happy when the mother and child are both healthy,” says Shagufta Shahzadi, a community midwife in Pakistan.

 

By A. Sami Malik

Antenatal and postnatal care for women in rural Pakistan has improved dramatically, thanks in part to the work of women like Shagufta Shahzadi, a skilled birth attendant trained under a UNICEF-supported programme.

KASUR DISTRICT, Pakistan, 3 December 2014 – “My biggest pleasure is to see that the mother and child are both healthy after the delivery,” says Shagufta Shahzadi, 30, a skilled birth attendant (SBA) who lives and works in Nandanpura village, Kasur district, in Pakistan’s Punjab province. 

UNICEF Image
© UNICEF Pakistan/2014/Zaidi
Shagufta Shahzadi leaves her home in Pakistan's Punjabi province. A sign on the wall displays ‘Community Midwife’.

“There is a huge difference between services provided by a trained birth attendant and an untrained traditional midwife. A skilled person knows how to prevent and deal with complications during pregnancy, at the time of delivery and delivering postnatal care for mother and child.”

A day’s work for Shagufta could include delivering a baby, advising pregnant women on prenatal care, walking to the neighbouring village to provide postnatal care to a mother and the newborn. She takes a lot of pride in her work and feels a sense of achievement in the fact that due to her services, there hasn’t been a case of a pregnant mother or newborn death in her area over the last year.

Looking back at the struggle she had to make throughout her life, Shagufta recalls, “I was two months old when my father passed away. My mother raised me and my sister with the little money she earned by stitching cloths. Her resources were meagre, yet she made sure that we both completed our matriculation. Thereafter, we completed our respective trainings. My sister became a lady health worker, and I became a skilled birth attendant.”

UNICEF Image
© UNICEF Pakistan/2014/Zaidi
Shagufta takes notes while talking with a patient, to keep a record of the periodic check-ups she conducts.

In 2012, Shagufta graduated from an 18-month community midwife training course organized by UNICEF at the District Headquarters Hospital in Kasur.

It wasn’t easy, as the younger of her two daughters was only a few months old. Support from her husband and the rest of the family helped her complete the training, and their support continues while she works as an SBA.

“Things have changed”

Comparing the prenatal, delivery and postnatal care exercised by untrained birth attendants 25 to 30 years ago to the modern day services offered by SBAs, Shagufta sees a big difference.

“My mother tells me that when I was born, a traditional midwife came to our house to manage the delivery," she says. "She had no concept of hygiene and did not even wash her hands before checking my mother. She placed some ash from the stove on the floor and delivered me there. Things have changed now. Lives lost due to unskilled practices can now be saved.” 

UNICEF Image
© UNICEF Pakistan/2014/Zaidi
Shagufta checks a pregnant woman who has come to the maternity care centre she operates in her home.

Shagufta provides antenatal and postnatal services to women and children in 10 villages within Kasur district.

As the only SBA in the area, and also because of her friendly disposition, Shagufta is a popular local figure, and women feel comfortable discussing issues with her.

“I conduct periodic check-ups of the pregnant women, keeping a record of their blood pressure, body temperature, pulse rate and oedema,” says Shagufta.

“It is important that I keep my contact with her right from early days of pregnancy till the delivery, and thereafter to provide postnatal care to the mother and the newborn.”

Positive results

Pakistan has a high rate of maternal and child mortality, and one of the reasons is the lack of SBAs, especially in remote rural areas. In collaboration with the Health Department of Punjab and development partners, UNICEF initiated a training program for SBAs in various district hospitals in 2005 to train young women belonging to rural communities so that they acquire the skill and start their own maternity practice within their communities.

UNICEF Image
Shagufta sits with a mother and her newborn child, delivered just a few days before.

“Due to the positive results of this programme, the Government of Pakistan has scaled up the initiative across the country,” says Dr, Tahir Manzoor, Health Specialist at UNICEF Pakistan. “In Punjab province, more than 5,000 women have been trained and are performing valuable services within their own communities. We can already see the positive impact of their services and are certain that it will improve the scenario of mortality and morbidity for mothers and new born children in Pakistan over the next few years.”

Shagufta believes that ensuring health and safety for mother and child is imperative.

“If mothers and children are healthy, the entire society will be healthy. The future generations will be healthy," she says. "We must try to save lives, as life is precious, and you only get it once.” 

http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/pakistan_78038.html

Comment by Riaz Haq on December 13, 2014 at 2:32pm

The fearless policewomen taking on the Taliban: Pakistan's female volunteers put through their paces in intense desert commando training 
Policewomen will take charge in police raids within anti-terror operations
More women recruited as NATO forces pull out of bordering Afghanistan
Comes amid greater co-operation between Pakistan, Afghanistan and US 

Running through the arid desert in the searing heat armed with AK-47s, these pictures show the gruelling work out undertaken by Pakistan's female volunteers. 
They have been put through their paces in an intense commando training to help combat the Taliban.
After the training - which took place in the Hakimabad district of Nowshera in northern Pakistan - the policewomen will take charge in police raids within anti-terror operations. 
More women are being recruited to fight the Taliban as NATO forces withdraw from neighbouring Afghanistan this month.
They also have the advantage of being able to perform jobs that men cannot - in the segregated and strictly religious world of Pakistan - women can only be searched by women. 

Their training also comes in the wake of signs of greater co-operation between Pakistan, Afghanistan and the US in the last week. 

They also have the advantage of being able to perform jobs that men cannot - in the segregated and strictly religious world of Pakistan - women can only be searched by women. 

Policewomen holding kalashnikovs during commando training in Hakimabad district of Nowshera, Pakistan

Policewomen holding kalashnikovs during commando training in Hakimabad district of Nowshera, Pakistan

After the training, the policewomen will take charge in police raids within anti-terror operations

After the training, the policewomen will take charge in police raids within anti-terror operations

The women are put through their paces in the searing heat of the desert to combat the Taliban in Pakistan 

The women are put through their paces in the searing heat of the desert to combat the Taliban in Pakistan 

Their training also comes in the wake of signs of greater co-operation between Pakistan, Afghanistan and the US in the last week. 


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2870426/The-fearless-police...

Comment by Riaz Haq on February 16, 2015 at 4:52pm

Check out stories of Pakistani female executives Jehan Ara (P@SHA), Zeelaf Munir ( English Biscuits), Tahira Raza (First Women Bank), Madiha Khalid (Shell Pakistan), Shafaq Omar (Unilever) and Atiqa Lateef (Byco).

http://tribune.com.pk/story/836606/female-corporate-powerhouses-in-...

Comment by Riaz Haq on February 16, 2015 at 4:53pm

According to Forbes, less than 5% of top global companies have female CEOs. Slightly more than 10% of the 1,645 billionaires in the world are women. And there are currently only 22 countries that have women as their head of state. At a glance, power still seems a disproportionately male domain.

But time and again, there are trailblazers who crack that code. They see opportunity where others see a disadvantage. They learn to maneuver a world that seems skewed towards serving those already at the top. Armed with their vision, ambition and persistence, they create paths where there were none. Driving this point home are some of Pakistan’s prominent female executives who have overcome multiple impediments to excel in their field and stand as reminders of what one can achieve if they put their mind to it.

Jehan Ara, responsible for developing the P@SHA brand, is a force to reckon with in the male-dominated field of Information Technology. With almost 30 years of experience in marketing, communication and interactive media in Hong Kong, the Far East, United Arab Emirates and Pakistan, she has built an impressive portfolio and remains mostly unchallenged in the field.

Ara completed a Bachelor’s degree in arts from St Joseph’s College for Women and immediately entered the workforce. Today, she is an entrepreneur, a motivator, a social activist and a strong proponent of extending the power and use of information and communication technologies to empower and enable communities. She is currently working on a start-up, P@sha’s Technology incubator, the first of its kind in Pakistan, which aims to provide launching platforms for the next big companies in the country.

Jehan Ara

President of the Pakistan Software Houses Association for IT (P@SHA)

1. Name three of your all-time favourite books.

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller, The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams and Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll.

2. What is the greatest strength you bring to your organisation?

Commitment and passion.

3. What is the one question you ask at every interview?

What drives you?

4. What is the biggest risk you’ve taken in your career?

I left a highly-paid, exciting position in Hong Kong, where I also had a major stake in the firm, and moved back to Pakistan with my parents.

5. Have you ever been a victim of workplace gender discrimination?

Yes. Once, in the absence of the group managing director once, a potential Japanese customer who came to our office in Hong Kong refused to have a business discussion with me because I was a woman. He wrote back to the MD from Japan, asking if he could fix a mutually convenient time, but my colleague wrote saying, “If you can’t do business with Jehan, you cannot do business with this company.”

6. What brings out the competitive streak in you?

I am not a competitive person. I believe more in collaboration and the strength of working together towards a common goal.

7. What is your least favourite thing about humanity?

The hatred that many people feel towards those who think differently.

8. What would you title your autobiography?

“A roller coaster ride!”

9. If you could have dinner with any one person, who would it be?

The late Steve Jobs.

10. If you could retire tomorrow, what would you do?

I don’t know the meaning of the word ‘retire’ but if I had to, I would want to have enough money to open up a high-tech bookstore with multimedia and fast speed internet access, a gift shop and a coffee shop where I could meet people, strike up a conversation with them, read a book and listen to music in peace.

Zeelaf Munir

Chairperson of the executive management board at English Biscuit Manufacturers (Private) Limited

Zeelaf Munir’s 20-year career is much like the woman herself — enterprising, dynamic and purposeful. But it is important to note that this female powerhouse was not initially inclined towards a career in the corporate world. It was her insights into the human psyche and leadership qualities that eventually earned her a prominent spot in the family-owned business.

After completing her medical degree from Dow Medical University, Karachi, Munir moved to the United States in 1994 to specialise in psychiatry from the Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis, Missouri. Later, she completed a masters degree from Johns Hopkins University and an advanced management program at Harvard Business School. A physician by training, Munir started her professional career in 1998 as a practicing psychiatrist at Fellowship Health Resources Incorporated in Delaware, USA. Within two years, she was promoted to medical director where she excelled by overseeing 40 programmes, expanding into seven states and spearheading innovative, evidence-based psychiatry models.

Munir has since headed a number of organisations. In 2010 she was elected president of the Association of Pakistani Physicians in North America, the largest Pakistani association outside the country. She has also led the Delaware Psychiatric Society as president and is an active member of the Asia Society, Acumen Fund and various other non-governmental organisations. She is currently also a board member of the community development programme which comes under the Planning and Development Department of the government of Sindh.

1. What adjectives would your references use to describe you?

People who really know me will say that I am passionate about what I do. I show strong leadership and have an innate proclivity to do whatever I can for humanity.

2. Name three of your all-time favourite books.

One hundred years of solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, A Short Guide to a Happy Life by Anna Quindlen and Good to Great by Jim Collins.

3. What is the one question you ask at every interview?

What is the boldest move you have ever made regarding your work that has achieved beyond expected results for the company?

4. What is the biggest risk you’ve taken in your career?

While I was happily practicing psychiatry, many opportunities came my way that tempted me to accept greater leadership and administrative roles in the healthcare industry in the United States but I decided to come back and contribute to my country.

5. What brings out the competitive streak in you?

Any challenge which appears impossible will always excite me and urge me to take it head-on.

6. What is your least favourite thing about humanity?

As humans we’ve been given the gift of wisdom, which will only deepen with continued learning. It really upsets me when I see complacent people. Also, I don’t feel too good about passive aggressive individuals and women who don’t take risks.

7. What would you title your autobiography?

“A life well-lived, every drop counts”

8. If you could have dinner with anyone, who would it be?

Just meeting Warren Buffet would be a huge learning experience for me.

9. If you could choose one person and have them truthfully answer one question, who would you select and what is the question?

The one person I have always wanted to meet is Muhammad Ali Jinnah. I want to ask him how he feels about Pakistan today and why.

10. If you could retire tomorrow, what would you do?

I think people like me only retire when they die. However, if I was to retire tomorrow, I think I would like to get involved in hands-on social work.

Tahira Raza

President of the First Women Bank Limited

Raza holds an MBA in banking and finance from the Institute of Business Administration, Karachi, and a banking diploma, DAIBP, from the Institute of Bankers in Pakistan. In 1975, she started her career with Muslim Commercial Bank and joined the First Women Bank Limited (FWBL) in 1989 as one of its founding executives. After serving there for 14 years she moved to the National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) where she became the first woman in the history of NBP to reach the position of senior executive vice president and group chief risk management in 2012.

In 2013 she rejoined FWBL as the bank’s president and has held the position ever since.

1. What adjectives would your references use to describe you?

They would say that I am headstrong, a lateral thinker, very disciplined and a workaholic in a positive way.

2. Name three of your all-time favourite books.

Akhri Chatan by Naseem Hijazi, Great Expectations by Charles Dickens and The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie.

3. What is the greatest strength you bring to your organisation?

I am very structure-oriented and I prefer a certain degree of discipline. Also, I have brought the culture of merit with me.

4. What is the biggest risk you’ve taken in your career?

I took up a failed project worth millions of rupees for which I had no previous knowledge or skills. I was warned by my colleagues that it was career suicide, but I managed to turn the project into a success story within 11 months.

5. Have you ever been a victim of workplace gender discrimination?

Yes. When I had just started with my career, there came a point when only the men in my organisation were promoted and I was the only one to question it. That bold move worked in my favour and after that I hardly faced any workplace gender discrimination.

6. What brings out the competitive streak in you?

Challenges make me very competitive; overcoming them, facing adversity and achieving goals that were previously thought to be impossible.

7. What is your least favourite thing about humanity?

Sympathy; especially where it is not due.

8. What would you do if you won a lottery?

When I become an equity holder, I would inject it as capital in First Women Bank.

9. What would you title your autobiography?

“No shortcut to success”

10. If you could retire tomorrow, what would you do?

If I retired tomorrow, I would just golf all day long.

Madiha Khalid

Head of Human Resources for Shell Pakistan

Madiha Khalid never shies away from a challenge. She has always pushed the boundaries and made it her life’s mission to eradicate male chauvinism with her extensive body of work.

In July 2005, Khalid, who holds a Bachelor’s degree in business strategy from the University of Wollongong, Australia, and an MBA in human resources from the Institute of Business Management, Karachi, began her career as a business partner for consumer banking at ABN-AMRO bank. In May 2006, she joined Shell Pakistan as a recruitment and learning advisor, looking after their summer internship and graduate programmes along with vacancy-driven recruitment. Two years later, she moved on to become one of the business partners managing global functions and became the recruitment manager for Shell Pakistan.

In January 2011, she became a business partner for the largest commercial skill pool as an HR Account Manager while retaining her recruitment portfolio. Due to her excellent display of skills, she was further asked to supervise Shell’s recruitment in UAE, Oman and Saudi Arabia. Currently as the head of HR, she looks after over 400 staff members.

1. What adjectives would your references use to describe you?

Resilient, opinionated and spirited.

2. Name three of your all-time favourite books.

The Reader by Bernhard Schlink, The End of the affair by Graham Greene and The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje

3. What is the greatest strength you bring to your organisation?

Empathy, approachability and the ability to listen. I think part of being a true leader is to be accessible, engaging and inspirational.

4. What is the one question you ask at every interview?

What makes you get out of bed every day?

5. What is the biggest risk you’ve taken in your career?

Taking up my current role. I had never managed a large team, didn’t have any significant payroll or labour management experience and these were all core elements of the job. What got me through the early days was to consistently believe in myself and never let anyone convince me otherwise.

6. What is your least favourite thing about humanity?

How casually and frequently we break the codes of morality.

7. What would you title your autobiography?

“High heels and breaking glass ceilings”

8. If you could have dinner with any one person, who would it be?

American technology executive, activist and author Sheryl Sandberg.

9. If you could retire tomorrow, what would you do?

I would become a coach and help girls achieve their dreams.

10. If you could choose any one person and have them truthfully answer one question, who would you select and what is the question?

I would ask American poet and novelist Sylvia Plath why she didn’t walk away from her unhappy marriage.

Shafaq Omar

Director of human resources for Unilever

Spotting talent comes naturally to Shafaq Omar. She has worked at some of the top firms in the country and can easily sift through thousands of potential candidates and narrow down the options to a handful of interviewees just by taking them through a series of unconventional questions.

A gold medallist from Kinnaird College, Lahore, and an MBA from the Lahore University of Management Sciences, Omar started her career in HR as a management trainee at Nestle Pakistan in Lahore. Later, she moved to Karachi and re-entered the workplace with short stints in a consultancy and a financial services company where she headed the HR department for the International General Insurance group. Soon after, she joined a local conglomerate, Engro Corporation, where she headed the HR department in their extended foods business and the parent company. From there on, Omar moved on to become the head of HR at Royal Dutch Shell Pakistan and in 2013 she joined Unilever where she currently serves at the head of HR.

1. What adjectives would your references use to describe you?

Approachable, empathetic and authentic.

2. Name three of your all-time favourite books.

The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy, The Forty rules of Love by Elif Shafak and The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini.

3. What is the greatest strength you bring to your organisation?

I channel the benefits of an open-minded work environment to further Unilever’s corporate objectives.

4. What is the one question you ask at every interview?

Would you describe yourself as more of an operational/organised person or a visionary/big thinker?

5. What is the biggest risk you’ve taken in your career?

Taking a mid-career break to be a stay-at-home mother.

6. What brings out the competitive streak in you?

When I want to prove something to myself.

7. What is your least favourite thing about humanity?

How we don’t understand that we all originate from the same energy, the same light.

8. What would you title your autobiography?

“Towards soul consciousness”

9. If you could have dinner with any one person, who would it be?

The Turkish author and columnist Elif Shafak.

10. If you could choose one person and have them truthfully answer one question, who would you select and what is the question?

I would talk to my paternal grandmother, a wise, gentle and beautiful woman who was ahead of her time, and ask her more questions on life.

Aatiqa Lateef

Group Chief of Staff at Byco Industries Incorporated

Aatiqa Lateef’s goal in life has been to empower women. While advancing her own career, she has made a conscious effort to encourage other women to join the corporate world and to shun stereotypes that women take as a given.

A Doctor of Law from the South Texas College of Law with an MBA in strategy from the Texas A&M University, Lateef initially put her qualifications to test as a business strategy consultant with the global firm BearingPoint in Chicago and later as an associate partner heading the Corporate Practice Group of Awan Raza’s Pakistan-based multinational law firm. She also served as a general counsel for House Building Finance Company Limited where she was instrumental in transitioning Pakistan’s oldest financial institution from public to private sector. Lateef also serves on the boards of Khushhali Bank, The Indus Entrepreneurs’ women’s entrepreneurship incubator and the preeminent Business Magazine, IBEX.

In addition to her professional focus in positioning market entities for entry onto global platforms, she is also a noted speaker and an advocate for women’s empowerment and success within the corporate environment. This includes authoring several publications which focus on the subject.

1. What adjectives would your references use to describe you?

It’s been said that I lend a unique and valuable perspective with an eye to detail. I’m someone who will always rise to the occasion and in doing so I’m a game-changer.

2. Name three of your all-time favourite books.

A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry, Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach and Oh, the places you’ll go! by Dr Seuss.

3. What is the greatest strength you bring to your organisation?

I’ve been told that I’m goal-oriented and objective.

4. What is the one question you ask at every interview?

What is the one thing you would change about your career?

5. What is the biggest risk you’ve taken in your career?

I’ve taken a lot of risks but I think my biggest career-related risk has yet to come.

6. Have you ever been a victim of workplace gender discrimination?

Maybe not explicitly, but perhaps as unconscious bias in the workplace I have. At the onset of joining a company, I was advised by a female colleague that she had overheard male colleagues declaring that a woman in my role could not handle the job. I was, of course, indignant and so a few of us ladies decided to change their minds. We simply stood our ground when we were being addressed by more aggressive colleagues and this eventually resulted in meetings becoming more balanced.

7. What brings out the competitive streak in you?

Whenever I am underestimated, it brings out my fighting spirit.

8. What is your least favourite thing about humanity?

In general, humans lack compassion for others. Our generation must teach the next one to be kind to creation and the universe will be kind to them.

9. What would you title your autobiography?

“A cliff-hanger”

10. If you could choose one person and have them truthfully answer one question, who would you select and what is the question?

That would be American television screenwriter Gene Rodenberry. I would ask him what captured his imagination.

http://tribune.com.pk/story/836606/female-corporate-powerhouses-in-...

Comment by Riaz Haq on March 2, 2015 at 11:53am

Popinjay dreams of making poverty a thing of the past for Pakistani women

As a student fortunate enough to be studying in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology – and so geographically separated from these realities – the story deeply impacted her. Even though she managed to land a six-figure engineering job after graduation, Saba couldn’t get the story out of her mind.

“In addition, I had always carried within me a deep love for the beautiful craft techniques I saw in Pakistan, where I grew up, as well as in my travels around the world – India, Bhutan, Ethiopia, and Sri Lanka,” she recounts. “I felt that this talent was stunted due to a lack of opportunities and connections to larger markets.”

So in 2011 – when America was still recovering from the effects of a terrible recession – Saba decided to return to her homeland and try to make a difference. She unwittingly stumbled upon her life’s mission in the process.

“I started a pilot in Pakistan to provide young women access to basic education and livelihoods. As it started gaining traction in the local community, I realized that it lit my fire like nothing had before,” she says. “Quitting my job after that was a no-brainer.”

The pilot program – which evolved into a full-fledged non-profit organization called BLISS – involved after-school classes in which girls learnt embroidery and needlework. Their embroidered fabric would then be sent to local producers to be finished into high-quality handbags, which were sold in boutiques. The proceeds would be used to fund the girls’ education, as well as recruit other students.

Their handiwork soon became extremely popular with customers not just locally, but from all over the world. In an article on Medium, Saba recalls an encouraging note from a customer from Canada:

I’ve never loved a thing as much as I love my BLISS bag. You make bags that change the world! People ask about it because it is so unusual, so lovely; it is embroidered art. When I tell them the story of families lifted economically, the bag becomes so much more beautiful.
In addition, the handbags were featured in several national and international media platforms, and even in fashion shows. On the surface, it seemed like a success, but there was a deeper issue that had Saba worrying behind closed doors – how the team was going to go about “scaling up our model after the initial proof of concept.” At that time, the BLISS team had a grand total of two people, with just 40 artisan women under its wings.
-------------

A massive overhaul of both business model and mindsets was what came next as BLISS was re-branded into the for-profit Popinjay, and came online in late 2013. The name is a Middle English word that means parrot.

“We chose a parrot because it is an animal that is associated with a voice,” Saba explains. “Our parrot stands for the voice of good fashion, the voice of the artisan women whose skills and stories we spread, and the voice of the consumer who wants to create positive impact with their purchase.” https://www.techinasia.com/popinjay-make-poverty-history-pakistani-...

Comment by Riaz Haq on March 3, 2015 at 10:42pm

Pakistani-American Iba Masood's Gradberry is launching today out of Y Combinator to connect US companies with vetted technical talent. Candidates quickly build a talent profile, connecting their GitHub, online portfolios and projects, and LinkedIn account. The talent profile is then vetted by the Gradberry team and approved candidates are passed along to specific employers.

The Gradberry of today is a result of three years of work, across several continents, multiple product iterations, two failed applications to Y Combinator and one very passionate founding team.
(Karachi-born) Iba Masood, co-founder and CEO says Gradberry works with graduates and employers. The site has jobs listings and courses, so students can take courses to fill in the gaps in order to land a position, or they can be hired and their employer will sponsor them to take a course to learn a required skill for the job. Masood says the majority of its revenue today comes from the latter. The way it works is that a company hires a recent graduate who looks promising, but lacks a requisite skill. For example, a marketing graduate could lack training in social media marketing. They take the online course, get a certificate and they should be better prepared for the job at hand.

Masood says she and co-founder, CTO Syed Ahmed started the company in 2012. Their original idea was a LinkedIn for students where recent graduates could have a place to apply for jobs, but by earlier this year they realized providing job listings wasn’t enough and they had to address this skills gap, and shifted their focus.

She reports they currently have approximately 38,000 registered users (representing 650+ universities globally), with 1,500 employers using the Beta. Among the first to sign on was IBM, which used the platform in developing economies in the Middle East and Asia.

The company uses a freemium model for employer job ads offering the first three ads free, after which they start paying for ads and training for employees as needed.

They have approximately 30 courses today ranging from languages like Arabic to social media marketing to learning HTML5 and they hope to crank that up to 120 courses by October. Masood says they began by producing the courses themselves, but they don’t want to be in the content creation business long-term. “What we’ve realized with content creation, it’s a capital-intensive, heavy model. It’s also intensive on the side of creation. To have high quality courses in terms of production value we would need a studio, the right lighting and video,” she explained. Moving forward they will oversee content creation, but won’t be creating it themselves.

Instead they are working on partnerships with companies like Microsoft and Adobe to produce the content for them. The software companies gain access to a highly valuable 18-24 market who will be trained in their product sets and there is value in that for these companies, which Gradberry hopes to take advantage of.

Gradberry has 6 employees and up until now they have been bootstrapped through revenue generated from the site and small prizes totaling $40,000 they have won in startup competitions. Currently they are part of MassChallenge, a Boston-based startup incubator, which Masood says has offered invaluable assistance in the development of her company.

“MassChallenge has connected us to stellar mentors and innovators in the Boston community, who have helped us refine our operational strategy, to scale on both sides of the equation –that is, course content and career opportunities,” she said. She added that they also have great connections to multinational organizations, who will be partnering with them to provide employer-led courses and job opportunities for fresh talent.


http://techcrunch.com/2014/08/11/gradberry-aims-to-fill-college-gra...

Comment by Riaz Haq on March 19, 2015 at 4:42pm

(Bloomberg) -- In Pakistan, it’s difficult to find a more successful money manager than Maheen Rahman.
The 39-year-old turned a loss—making asset management company into a profitable acquisition target, led her flagship equity fund to the country’s top performance and positioned her new firm for what she estimates will be a 40 percent jump in client assets this year. For all that, Rahman still struggles to prove she belongs in an industry where all 21 of her rival chief executive officers are men.
“My biggest challenge has been building a reputation and trust in a market that values grey hair and being male,” said Rahman, who oversees the equivalent of $180 million in stocks and bonds as the CEO of Alfalah GHP Investment Management Ltd. in Karachi. “After all these years, I still routinely get asked why I don’t just design clothes.”
While Rahman’s rise to the top of a financial firm would have been almost unheard of in Pakistan two decades ago, her struggle to gain the acceptance of male peers illustrates the challenge professional women still face in a country with the smallest proportion of female workers among Asia’s 15 largest economies. Investors who bet on Rahman have been rewarded with a 443 percent return from her IGI Stock Fund since its inception seven years ago, 117 percentage points more than the benchmark index and the biggest gain among 34 peers tracked by Bloomberg.
Female Workforce
Rahman, who’s also the youngest head of a Pakistani asset manager, has distinguished herself with timely bets on energy and interest-rate sensitive companies amid a rally in the nation’s $71 billion stock market that outpaced every other country worldwide except the Philippines and Sri Lanka.
Pakistan’s KSE 100 Index has returned 326 percent -- or 195 percent in dollar terms -- since Rahman’s IGI Stock fund started in July 2008 as the country completed its first-ever democratic transition of power, secured a $6.6 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund and pledged to sell stakes in state-run companies. Surging consumer spending and Asia’s highest dividend yields have also convinced investors to look past power blackouts and a war with Taliban insurgents on the Afghan border.
The gains for women in Pakistan’s $233 billion economy haven’t been nearly as strong. Just 25 percent of the nation’s female population is part of the workforce, up from 22 percent in 2008, according to data compiled by the World Bank. That compares with an average rate of 52 percent for Asia’s largest economies.
Even at Rahman’s firm, she’s one of just six women among a total staff of 48.
---
Rahman, the daughter of a Unilever Plc executive, graduated from Lahore University of Management Sciences in 1997 and earned a master’s degree in economics and finance from Warwick Business School in the U.K. She began her career as an analyst at Merrill Lynch & Co. in Singapore before returning to Pakistan. She joined BMA Capital Management, a Karachi-based brokerage, as the head of research in 2007, then took on the CEO role at IGI Funds Ltd. in 2009.
IGI Turnaround
Rahman doubled assets under management in her first year at the helm of IGI and led the firm to a 15 percent return on equity -- a gauge of profitability. The gains came even as industry assets shrank 7 percent in the year ended June 2010, according to the Mutual Funds Association of Pakistan....
-------

Last year, she began favoring companies that benefit from lower borrowing costs, a move that paid off as the central bank cut interest rates to an 11-year low. Some of her biggest holdings in the IGI Stock Fund as of January included Pak-Suzuki Motor Co., Pakistan’s biggest carmaker, and Lucky Cement Ltd., the nation’s second-largest maker of the building material.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-03-19/woman-earning-400... 

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