Achieving a gender-equal world requires social innovations that work for both women and men

and leave no one behind. It begins with making sure that women’s and girls’ needs and
experiences are integrated at the very inception of business, technology and innovations. It also
means building smart solutions that go beyond acknowledging the gender gaps to addressing the
needs of men and women equally.

Recently, Commonwealth Businesswomen’s Network (CBW) hosted an event in association with

Shajar Management Consultant (SMC) to celebrate International Women’s Day and honour the
women associated with the corporate sector. Women from different walks of life, partners and
representatives of the Media Sector were present on the occasion. The guest speakers included,
Tehreem Zubairi, Mahtab Akbar Rashdi, Rasheed Noorani, Shahmeer Ansari, Maria Rashdi, Dr.
Sadia Rajput, Romana Khokhar, Mehreen Ahsan andFaheem Abbas.

The objectives of the International Women’s Day, which covers the entire month of March, were
to celebrate the struggle for women’s rights in the business, education and finance domain, and
to reaffirm women’s solidarity in the struggle for peace. The theme for this year was
‘#balanceforbetter’ in acknowledgement of the growing global movement of advocacy, activism
and support surrounding gender parity and sexism to encourage people to continue the vocal
fight for equality.

Executive Director CBW said, “Women’s economic empowerment are the words of today and go
way back to the time when Quaid-e-Azam emphasised its importance in terms of the women’s
contribution in all spheres and it drives us even today especially in line with the challenges faced
today. We believe that investing in women is the most effective way to improve the standards of
living of communities. Many of our initiatives work with women to empower them socially and
economically.”

Erum Masood , Adviser to CBW, said, “I have always believed that a woman become much
stronger if they get support from another woman, especially, around them. It is very important to
empower the word in terms of how it is used.

Empower means to promote! To make women strong who are not strong. The concept of
promoting the same women every year does not make sense. On behalf of the commonwealth
Businesswomen’s Network, I strongly believe that we are here to make a difference by being
different ourselves.”