A driver for change
While the rally for gender equity is no less important in any other month, we were pleased to acknowledge one of our own on earning the 2015 World Women Leadership Achievement Award in our March e-newsletter, the month of International Women’s Day. intercultures consultant Dr. Gabi Kratochwil earned the award in a Mumbai, India ceremony in honor of her and around 70 other women. She described the encounter as, “a wonderful, colorful, glittering mosaic representing diversity in its proper sense,” in terms of the various professional and national identities that women represented. Most significant to Gabi about the occasion was that it promoted the ethic that, “it is important to be a driver for change.”
The passion for women’s empowerment
For more than 25 years, Dr. Gabi Kratochwil has worked to become a driver for change in her own context. She is a cross-cultural consultant, diversity management trainer and author with an active passion for women’s empowerment. In addition to many years of practical experience, her expertise on German-Arab dialogue is informed by her bi-cultural background. Highlights of Gabi’s life’s work thus far include her 2006 intercultural business handbook, Business Etiquette: The Arab World, ranked as one of the five top management books by Financial Times. In 2008, she initiated the Arab-German Businesswomen Dialogue at the Ghorfa Arab-German Chamber of Commerce and Industry motivated by the principle that, “it is of paramount importance to share best practice strategies; to explore new ideas; to network.” Her 2012 book, The New Arab Women, was inspired by Gabi’s desire, “to share these wonderful and inspiring success stories of Arab women with a wider audience, giving them the platform they deserve,” to which readers and critics alike responded with high acclaim.
Structural changes for gender equity
At the heart of women’s empowerment, said Gabi, structural changes are necessary to address the business-strategic imperative of gender equity, which she acknowledged is not made in courtesy to women. (For more rationale of the business case for gender equity in the workplace, review McKinsey’s report, „Women Matter 2“ or „The Caliper Study,“ both referenced by Gabi during our interview with her.) “In my own country,” said Gabi referring to Germany, “we are facing all these challenges in all fields of the workforce. How can we break the famous glass ceiling?” Beyond this perceived and real professional limit for women in a number of workplaces, the infrastructure of our organizations, leadership, career pipelines and more serve as a help or a hindrance to advancing professionals—all genders alike—to their ultimate professional capacity. Indeed, our structures are the very vessels through which sustainable change takes place and cultures of thought are maintained.
Gender equality across countries
In addition to how we organize our priorities at the top tiers of our organizations, Gabi listed a number of more everyday factors that women and their managers can influence. These include the grounding assumption that women can and do achieve high professional performance; access to professional development; opportunities for career advancement; time apart from family to invest in work; an engagement in mentorship; the projection of professional confidence; visibility in professional contexts; and the ability to persuade. We confess that our Editor challenged the „can-do“ attitude of Gabi’s recommendations by asking her thoughts on how feasible these actions and attitudes might be in countries where there is a signifiant gap in roles and freedoms between the genders. Gabi responded knowingly that, „there is change happening even in countries which you would not have expected.“ After reflecting upon what the interview question may imply about some countries in contrast to others, our Editor acknowledges that „developed“ countries do not have a monopoly upon advancing a culture of gender equity. Women are denied equal opportunity in some of the world’s greatest economic powerhouses while status quo power structures are maintained—even at the expense of progress. Perhaps the better question is what we can learn across countries and localize in order to advance efforts toward gender equity in our own contexts.
Facing the challenge of tomorrow together
Gender equity is possible only through partnership between the genders. “Together, hand-in-hand as equal partners we can face the challenge of tomorrow,” said Gabi. Human Resources leader Dr. R.L. Bhatia, for instance, is the man behind the founding of the World Women Leadership Achievement Award. In Gabi’s professional practice, she facilitates gender cooperation in the workplace as she did recently in a Diversity & Inclusion workshop with a group in Tunis, Tunisia (made up predominantly of men) who came together to create concrete solutions that adjusted their organizational structure in the direction of increased professional opportunities for female employees. Their solutions included, “increasing the number of women leaders in the company through mentoring; training and providing leadership pipelines; flexible working hours”; and the decision to build an on-site company kindergarten. Both at home and when out in the professional world, Gabi is proud to consider herself one of many successful women supported by a successful man who she calls husband. In all, intercultures and Gabi believe that being the change of women’s empowerment is an equal opportunity challenge for all.
We congratulate intercultures Consultant, Dr. Gabi Kratochwil, on her past and in-progress accomplishments and honor the contributions of men and women alike in their work towards gender equity.
The above article was included in the Mar. 2015 intercultures e-newsletter.
Picture Credit Title Picture: Dr. Gabi Kratochwil.