When women begin to see life as a game of chess

CHENNAI: Over the last decade, women entrepreneurs in India have been breaking the glass ceiling, contributing greatly to the country’s economy. The British Deputy High Commission in association with the Madras Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) recently held a Commonwealth Women/Entrepreneurs event at the British High Commission. Saraswathi K, Secretary General of MCCI said, “MCCI and the British high Commission share a lot of common objectives. Be it advocating for governance, women empowerment or a sustainable growth, we have common things to do and this is one such event — creating entrepreneurship for women, with a common future.”

Keeping the spotlight on women, a panel of leading entrepreneurs and women achievers including  Soundarya Rajesh, Founder, Avtar Group, Aishwarya Manivannan, artist-cum-Silambam Practitioner, Mahesh Ramachandran, Managing Director, Commonwealth Inclusive Growth Services Ltd, Madhavi Latha, President, Wheelchair Basketball Federation of India and Subashini Vanangamudi, Managing Director, Satori Creatives LLP along with Bharat Joshi, British Deputy High Commissioner discussed entrepreneurship, women rights and empowerment. “One of the key issues of the 2018 Women’s Forum, will be to reflect on some global challenges still faced by women, as part of a wider commitment to leave no one behind in the  journey to 2030,” said Bharat.

“What has been the biggest challenge in your journey,” asked Bharat, to the panel. In response, Soundary said, “Leave no one behind became my ‘mantra’. I started looking at women who weren’t able to find it sustainable and dropped of work on the altar of motherhood and marriage. The challenge is that women see their life as a game of snakes and ladders and not as game of chess where she is the most powerful — the queen,” she asserted.

For Aishwarya, the challenge has been beyond gender. “I didn’t start Silambam expecting it to be towards a major part of my life. Women are sometimes made to think in a unidirectional way in their careers. Our career is a self-portrait of ourselves and is very dynamic. We need to create a dynamic system of work and take it forward,” she explained. While the core emphasis of the event was on women in entrepreneurship, gender stereotyping and gender dependency were also discussed.