Each year the world celebrates March as a special month for honoring women. Different organizations hold seminars, conferences, and workshops about women’s role in the society, while media devotes a lot of attention to women issues.
But we at CIPE don’t think about women only in March. During the entire year we seek ways to improve women’s lives, their businesses, and their families’ livelihood. We work closely with women business associations, chambers of commerce for women, and other groups dedicated to building women’s leadership in public, community, and business life.
We’ve done many things in Romania to achieve just that. In 2001, we helped establish a Coalition of Women Business Associations (CAFA). A small organization at the time, it has since grown to include 19 members, all women business associations across the country. They all voluntarily joined this coalition to ensure that their interests as businesswomen are represented and that they have a sound platform to express their views. Their main objective? A strong business community. Their motto? Value has no gender.
We have also seen a lot of positive feedback to the “Women of Success” program, which features prominent businesswomen in Romania as they tell their own story. The women are nominated and selected by different associations throughout the country, although they don’t have to be association members.
“Women of Success” has become a powerful tool to motivate more women to dedicate time and effort to build a career, a company, a business. Romania is a country where women are generally equal to men in terms of laws and regulations and they are not discriminated against. The paradox comes from the fact that although we don’t feel discriminated, we have so many things to do that we give up our bigger goals. So the portraits and the stories featured on the “Women of Success” CD circulated to women in the country are particularly important as a motivator to pursue their dreams.
Several Romanian women business associations have also developed programs that feature successful women in the community. For example, the Association of Women Entrepreneurs and Top Managers in Brasov County (AFAFCI) has created Femina VIP. This is an annual contest in Brasov County in which regular women that achieve extraordinary results in business compete for people’s heart and appreciation in an open contest. AFAFCI organizes and supervises the selections and the contest itself, which has become one of the most visible local happenings. They get large coverage in the media and are supported by the local public authorities.
Femina VIP is about celebrating who we are, celebrating the results of outstanding women, and more importantly, celebrating within their own community. Recognition of peers and community is, at the end of the day, an enormous value. Last time I was there when a ballet teacher who has created a well-recognized ballet school won the Femina VIP trophy. When she was introduced to us, the presenter read all the nominations and prizes she won during her life; she has even received an award from the Pope!
In tears, with emotion in her voice, with flowers in her arms, she told us that this nomination and the trophy are more important for her than everything else she received in her life, as they mean the people she worked for appreciate what she did.
Having said all this, I want to share one last thought with women everywhere: don’t wait for spring and March to tell people about your accomplishments! Just share them with the world and be an inspiration to the younger generation.
Published Date: March 09, 2010