TAYLOR’S SPEAKERS CORNER x TAYLOR’S GIRL UP: WOMXN@WORK | BY EVELYN CHEN SIAW YIN

by - May 02, 2021

Official event poster.
Source: @taylorsgirlup on Instagram. 
 A woman. What does it mean to be labelled as such in the working industry and what are they subjugated to because of this title? As a continuation from their Womxn@Work campaign which started in mid-March, Taylor’s Girl Up has collaborated with Taylor’s Speakers Corner to bring to us a discussion among five empowering women as they spoke about their experiences and thoughts on what it means to be a woman in our current society.

The event kicked off with the introduction of our two hosts, Brandon and Shiva, as well as the panelists present for the event, namely: Ms Tashny Sukumaran, Ms Lim Carmen, Ms Kasthury Paramiswaran, Ms Zainab Afiqah and Ms Joyce Lim.

SPEAKER #1: Ms Tashny Sukumaran

Source: Taylor's Speaker's Corner on Facebook. 
Being the first to take the stage, Ms Tashny started by speaking about the discrimination Malaysian women had to face at work. Based on her experience as a senior analyst with Institute of Strategic International Studies (ISIS), she pointed out that Malaysia currently lacks non discriminatory policies, substantive sexual harassment laws and child care resources to accommodate women with a safe working environment. Especially in the case of lower income households, she mentioned that the female gender was more likely to take up caregiving work and lose out on education opportunities as compared to the male gender. Despite statistics showing women’s higher involvement in terms of studies, it appears that women are not spotlighted enough in terms of their contribution towards our country’s industries.

“We have gone past the point of having to raise awareness; we should be coming down with enforcements.”
- Ms Tashny Sukumaran

Ms Tashny also touched on the topic of how harassment at work spaces are still at large. From locker room talks to normalized attitude towards harassment, the poor understanding of what constitutes harassment and consent has driven many women to dread going to work. Verbal assaults, in particular, have caused many sexual harassment cases to remain unattended as there were “no physical acts involved”.

When it came to her closing remarks, Ms Tashny emphasised that the current issue faced by women was something men could help with through allyship. Some of the many ways men could help bridge the gap include: calling out inappropriate acts against women, backing women when misogynistic comments were made and simply breaking down the mentorship system among males. Ms Tashny firmly believes that acknowledging people by their merits and skills instead would create a better workspace for women.

SPEAKER #2: Ms Zainab Afiqah

Source: Taylor's Speaker's Corner on Facebook. 
Subsequently, Ms Zainab included her experiences on Ms Tashny’s point of caretaking roles being assigned to women. Coming from a family with ten siblings, her greatest inspiration has always been her mother who had to take care of their family alongside juggling her career. As with many mothers, people would question her decision to continue on with her career when she has children to look after, a notion that greatly frustrated her. Especially in the case where working mothers send their children to child care, there would be those who would lay the blame on the mother’s inability to take care of her children well. Why is it that caretaking has to be something primarily done by females and not something shared by both parents?

“Women cannot be too loud. Women cannot be too successful. Don’t be too ambitious or else men are going to be intimidated by you. You will not be married at all. I think that’s kind of funny right. ‘Cause who wants a man who’s intimidated by me?”
- Ms Zainab Afiqah

As a teacher, Ms Zainab wishes to empower her female students into breaking off such stereotypes by encouraging them to take on leadership roles. There should be an end to the perceptions on how a woman should behave, and the traditional way of thinking marriage is the only goal of a woman’s life should be left behind by our society. She feels that changing society’s view on women is not limited to public sentiments but also policymaking. Such equality can be recognised if organisations would provide the same incentives for both males and females when it comes to taking leave for pregnancy and care taking.

SPEAKER #3: Ms Lim Carmen

Source: Taylor's Speaker's Corner on Facebook. 
The floor was then passed on to Ms Carmen, who spoke of her experience both as a woman and a disabled person being part of the national sports council and sports team as a Paralympic swimmer.

Having started off her sporting career at fifteen, Ms Carmen now looks back on the times where she was subjected to microaggressions on multiple occasions. Especially with her being outspoken on the grievances faced by her and her fellow athletes, there were many accounts of her being reprimanded for it. One such occasion was when she made a statement on the current conditions of the paralympic team and called for an improvement in the sporting equipment that was provided. As a result, this angered the sports council, many of whom responded that the team should be “grateful for what they have”. Ms Carmen acknowledged that unfortunately, no one can stand up against the unfair treatment they faced in the paralympic team for fear of losing their jobs.

“Why should such categorisation of people limit which areas employees enter when they join any industry? It doesn’t make sense.”
- Ms Lim Carmen

Even in the law industry where Ms Carmen is currently pursuing a degree in the University of Cambridge, Ms Carmen stated that women are more likely to sit in the office instead of taking charge of legislation work as they were deemed to be “not as outspoken compared to the men”. With such preconceptions in mind, she laments that it is inevitable women would face such discriminations at work. Acknowledging the fact that she is privileged enough to have received good education, she believes that she will continue speaking up on this issue as both an athlete and as a future lawyer, as she wishes for her fellows to break off from being complacent with the discrimination they currently face.

SPEAKER #4: Ms Joyce Lim

Source: Taylor's Speaker's Corner on Facebook. 
As the founder and CEO of Simple Empowering, Ms Joyce shared about how she was able to make it out this far in her career. Her initial goal in life was to do well in school, graduate with a degree, get married, have children and work until retirement. However, things didn't work out well in reality as she switched to job after job because of the stress, office politics and the inability to secure a job during the financial crisis in 1997. She then ventured into self employment, but without a proper understanding of what it entails, it left her financially and emotionally unstable.

“What limited me last time was my belief that I can only be so much, but what makes me thrive after that was an environment that supports me.”
- Ms Joyce Lim

It was during this period of her life that Ms Joyce met her mentor, the founder of a business incubator. He created an environment that was supportive of what she wished to do, and would at multiple occasions, encourage her to explore and experience things outside of her expertise. Through the experience of helping out in events and providing insight to startup businesses, she was able to regain her own self confidence and realised that the same opportunities should be provided to many others. Hence, she worked together with her partner to start her own company, with the main aim to support passionate youngsters to explore their interests and provide them a platform that does not discriminate by gender and race.

SPEAKER #5: Ms Kasthury Paramiswaran

Source: Taylor's Speaker's Corner on Facebook. 
Before proceeding to give her speech on intersectionality, Ms Kasthury gave a brief background on her career and delivered a self-written poem entitled “The Walls Have Ears, And They Can Hear” with much gusto.

Intersectionality, as defined by Ms Kasthury, is a politcal standing for us in society that either gives us privilege over others or causes us to face discrimination. She mentioned that as a female coming from a minority group coupled with ADHD, she bears the responsibility to ensure that she is able to thrive over the discriminations held against her. Like with most parents, she talked about being subjected to living a “boomer template of success”, wherein having financial stability whilst leading a balanced life was not something easily achievable.

“The more you are discriminated against through these different intersections, the more you are marginalized; the worse things are for you. You have to work double the time, triple the time to just feel financially secure, and you want to lead a balanced life on top of that.”
- Ms Kasthury Paramiswaran

As she moved on to talk about her freelancing work, Ms Kasthury explained that the industry could at times take advantage of you by offering a lower rate at the expense of “providing exposure” to freelancers. This is rather disheartening to see as the freelancing industry is quite like that of a bargaining system and the commissioning rate for services is not standardized. Hence, she encourages for freelancers to work together in terms of ensuring that everyone is getting rightfully paid for their work. Efforts could include reducing censorship on prices offered to clients and reducing jealousy and backbiting within the industry. Sharing opportunities could be a means of finding more for ourselves, and in times like these, it is especially important to band together to ensure that everyone is able to take up opportunities suitable for ourselves.

Food for Thought

Throughout the event, it was amazing to see our hosts and panelists go back and forth in conversation about the many issues that are faced by women. Having been present before the panelists delivered their speeches, I was blown away by each speaker’s charisma as they delivered their insights on women in workplaces. As a woman myself, their speeches have made me reflect on how our society may have come a long way in terms of advancement, but has yet to achieve the equality each individual is entitled to.

It was great to see chats flood with encouragement and positivity as each speaker took the stage, and that is exactly how our society should be! A space where we can encourage the development of every individual, male or female alike. It’s time we stopped discriminating against women and focus on fostering love and peace within our community.

I believe that until the day each individual in our society is recognised for their own merits and skills instead of their gender, culture and disabilities, these five women will continuously strive for equality. Cheers to them in empowering women and creating a long-lasting impact through their respective fields!

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