Corine and Astrid highlighted that Women have unique challenges in the workplace, which include but not limited to not being taken seriously, resuming back to work during pregnancy, balancing family and work life, and the list goes on.  

Some of these challenges stand from the unfair social constructs and cultural baggage of woman, which some are extremely ridiculous, e.g. women have to be beautiful at all times or being judged as non-productive because of having children.  

Corine further added that female role model in the business world is not as available compared to the male counterpart on navigating through these unique challenges. This makes it harder to find real case studies they could relate to personally.  

Firstly, Corine believes everyone is a leader and there is nothing to do with position. On the individual level, the key is to really follow your personal passion and find how the organization could put your passion and purpose into action.  

This is even more relevant in the sustainability related career as Sustainability is widely believed to be in conflict with profitability, and a lot of convincing needed to get everyone onboard.  

Corine cited the inspiring example of Melati Wijsen and her sister, who have sparked a global movement on combating single used plastic at a very young age. They have no position but able to leverage their communities to rally and pressure the Governor of Bali to band single used plastics. It all started with their passion.  

On the other hand, Astrid shared her personal formulas in 3 points: -  

Additionally, Astrid shared that women should always take advantage of their credentials and demonstrate their credibility in the situation when they are not being taken seriously. This includes their experience, academic achievements and more.  

For corporate leadership point of view, Corine shared that having females in decision making give better perspective and understanding on the needs of the communities they are serving, particularly for ESG career.  

Taking FrieslandCampina for example, Corine shared that woman could understand better the end user’s need, or in this case the mother who are generally responsible for the children nutritional need. This strengthens FrieslandCampina ESG purpose and commitment to help the end user in accessing their nutritional need.  

To the business leaders, Corine emphasizes that it is very important for company leadership to walk the talk, by preparing an environment that allow women to be successful and thrive in their career.  

Companies could get started by deploying strategies they seen fit e.g. impose gender quota, minimum threshold, or any other strategies. The key here is to get started with at list minimum number of females in decision-making position.