Despite the recent progress around gender diversity and inclusion in the workplace, women still face discrimination in various business scenarios, Jazzy Mac, female credit expert and YouTube celebrity, told Arabian Business.
“Sexism is still very prevalent in the business world. It comes up with women wanting to start a business, such as when it’s time to get a business loan, or it’s time to raise some sort of venture capital,” said Mac.
“We also see it a lot when women are pitching to investors: I’ve seen some female founders that will actually have a male pitch their company to an investor in the beginning, just so that they can get what would seem to them as a fair chance at some sort of capital,” she continued.
Within this context, Mac urges women faced with workplace discrimination to “call it out.”
“The only way we can conquer any type of sexism is if we’re vocal about it so I think that women have to get comfortable telling their personal story and talking about the struggles they’ve experienced and any sort of rejection they faced, where they felt like it was on the basis of gender. We have to start getting comfortable with making everyone else know that that isn’t okay,” said Mac.
“Among the other things that you could do is find an advocate. If there is any person who is in a position of leadership, or can elevate your company, have that person also advocate for you, and speak up on your behalf to other people in the industry who you might need to be connected to. It’s super important to have business mentors that can help guide you through a lot of these processes.
“There are also other organisations, such as tech accelerators, that are generally geared towards women and minorities – and those companies definitely play a role in training their enrolees in different ways,” she continued, mentioning initiatives such as three-month pitching programmes “that will also open them up to different networking opportunities with investors that they probably would not have an opportunity to meet with otherwise.”
Another business ecosystem challenge women encounter is the perception that they are not good with money.
Mac called out this stereotype saying: “My female mentors and people I’ve done work with are sometimes the breadwinners of the family and sometimes they’re the in charge of budgeting, or investing for their family. So I think we have to get rid of that stereotype.”
“What tends to happen is that talking about money can be very taboo; the generation before would never openly talk about money, and they wouldn’t openly talk about how to save and build it. But I think women have to get comfortable with going to a financial planner and saying, ‘this is what I hope to do with my money in 20 years,’” she said.
“It doesn’t have to happen only when you’re successful; even if you were living pay check to pay check, making a minimum wage, it’s still important to talk with people at your local bank about money. So that when you start making more money, you’ll know what to do with it.
“That’s how you start to change the narrative and it’s also how you start to put yourself in a better position,” continued Mac.
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