Industry leaders celebrate women founders breaking stereotypes in Pakistan

In recent news, COLABS, one of Pakistan’s leading co-working spaces hyperfocused on accelerating freelancers and startups, hosted a panel in collaboration with CIRCLE Women and the U.S. Department of State to celebrate ‘Women Founders Breaking stereotypes’ and ‘16 Days of Activism against gender-based violence’.

This is a campaign initiated by the United Nations where the organization marks 16 Days of Activism against Gender-based Violence from 25 November to 10 December 2021, under the global theme set by the UN Secretary-General’s UNiTE, termed as ‘Orange the World: End Violence against Women Now!’

The panel discussion revolved around creating a safe space and gender-inclusive culture at workplaces for women to grow and succeed. How can industry leaders and organizations like the U.S consulate help women founders and women-led startups to grow and reach the relevant people?

Reid Howell mentioned how gender-based violence is a human rights issue and it takes away all the potential growth from women who make up 49% of our population. Similarly, lack of female representation makes our economy operate below potential which means it is an economic problem in itself.

Participating in the panel were Reid Howell, Deputy Public Affairs Officer, U.S Consulate, Aiman Bashir, Co-founder and CEO Out-Class, Sana Nauman Chaudhry, Co-founder BreatheIO, and Fatima Mazhar, COO COLABS. The panelists talked about first-hand experiences about stereotyping and the need to create more opportunities to increase female representation across all platforms which can, in turn, cater to various economic needs of Pakistan.

The panel discussion was attended by many women who were in the workforce, key female industry leaders, and teams such as XCALYBR, Furnishia, Jiye Technologies, She Loves Tech finalists, Abeer Baz Project manager CIRCLE Women, and Jamal ud Din Ghazanfar, Provincial Coordinator Alumni Affairs for U.S. Department of State.

This panel discussion was powered by Circle Women which is a social enterprise by Sadaffe Abid, dedicated to women’s economic empowerment and leadership development through advocacy, research, and innovative entrepreneurial labs.