A seminar on “Womenomics: The Advancement of Economics” was hosted in Hong Kong by Asia Society. The concept of “Womenomics” saying that women’s participation in an economic advancement will improve the economy as a whole. Lena Wong, co-founder of Womentors was invited to be one of the panelists to share her thoughts on female workforce participation. The main theme of the seminar was to review the current status quo of women empowerment in Hong Kong for making inclusive workplace more popular and feasible.
Diversity and Inclusion – Women are more likely than men to be unemployed due to traditional gender stereotypes, such as women are no longer well-suited for the workplace after having a child and taking care of their child and family. Nevertheless, this seminar pointed out that ensuring equal representation of women in the workplace can drive greater profitability in a corporate, according to a report of Women in the Workplace done by McKinsey in 2021.
Women Opportunity: Flexible Working under Covid-19 – Working from Home is highly encouraged by corporates, which enables more flexibility and agility in working arrangements. Women, in particular mothers are actually serving on the frontlines against COVID‑19 as women bear more responsibility of keeping the house in order. On the other hand, the transition to a remote working provides an opportunity for women as a flexible way to spend time for work and family.
Advertising to Women – Women have long been the major target of many marketers. Advertisers understand that women are primarily responsible for acquiring the purchase of goods for themselves and the people in their lives. Hence, they are exposed to advertisements in a wide range of product categories, such as insurance, daily necessities, fitness, health care products and even car. One of the panelists, who is Visa’s General Manager for Hong Kong and Macau sharing that almost 90% of the senior marketing executive are male. Here comes to a problem, the corporate wants to target women with ads created by men. To get better understand on women’s needs and wants is bring more women into the senior workplace.
At the end of the seminar, the speakers agreed that some advantages are indeed brought by Covid-19 for women, in reality, however, many of the corporates in Hong Kong prefer traditional working environment.