Meera Kaul Foundation: Bent on empowering women in Dubai

About half of the world’s working population comprises of women. Sadly however, merely a fraction makes it to the top – only three per cent of CEOs across the world are women. Technology has indeed played a pivotal role in changing business dynamics, enabling innovation and diversity. But even in this day and age gender parity exists especially in the corporate world. The Meera Kaul Foundation, established in 2011, is one non-profit entity that strives to address this very issue worldwide.

“Gender inequality is an important issue globally. Does it not make economic sense to inspire women, who make up 50 per cent of the world population, to contribute to the national economy? This can be achieved by not only providing them with right opportunities, but also honing their skills to ensure active participation,” opined Meera Kaul, Founder of the organisation.

The Meera Kaul Foundation primarily offers a broad range of women-driven programmes and initiatives that aim to unravel women’s immense potential especially in male-dominated industries such as Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). Led by a team of outstanding women belonging to emerging markets, the foundation provides a robust support system.

In line with the founder’s vision, the establishment will be hosting a groundbreaking event entitled Women in STEM Conference and Awards in Dubai, which aims to recognise leading women entrepreneurs and executives in various fields. Held on January 14th and 15th 2015, the conference and award ceremony will also highlight issues such as the lack of female role models, equipped with the ability to lead their respective communities and more importantly their industry. “The Women in STEM Awards attempts to identify and recognise women executives in various streams of STEM business and in various countries, who have excelled by delivering high levels of performance and results, in a consistent and worthy manner.”

Breaking stereotypes and empowering women to acquire the necessary skills to rise through the ranks of their peers especially in traditionally male dominated fields is a challenge the Meera Kaul Foundation willingly embraces. “The world has evolved through the passage of time. Work segregation was mainly due to the physical nature of a vocation or occupation. Gone are the days when men hunted and women took care of homes. That is most certainly not the case anymore. Job performance is now based on a number of elements from business acumen, work-related skills, experience and so forth. So women can most certainly be no less than men and vice versa,” Ms. Kaul said.

Women in STEM Conference and Awards is a two-day event with highly stimulating activities from conferences, all women hackathon, and will conclude with an award ceremony. The Conference will also exhibit the 100 Women in STEM Programme where videos about women entrepreneurs showed resilience and worked against all odds. These twominute videos will also be judged for grit, determination and entrepreneurial spirit by the judges and not on the basis of success or failure, along with being played during the conference.