November 2018 www.womanthismonth.com 28 showcase ARE WOMEN OPPONENTS OR ALLIES IN THE WORKPLACE? In the latest in a series tackling women’s issues, Bahrain Credit’s Imtiaz For Her Hosts chats to three inspiring leaders to explore this workplace myth. Hosts Give us a brief about yourself and what you do for a living. To be honest, I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I started working full-time at 19 and went to university in the evenings to study business management. I fell into a career of marketing and business development on the logistics side. I was lucky that I was working at a place where the HR person left. I took it on as extra work and loved it immediately and, because I have worked on the other side, I knew the problems and the things people didn’t like. I took two courses in labour law, and then certification, and I have been doing this job for seven years now. How do you find working with women in comparison to male colleagues? I think that at times we [women] are our own worst enemies; we let emotions come into play too much. I find that women don’t bond together as well as men perceive themselves bonding and reacting to each other. I don’t think men are less jealous et cetera, they just don’t show it! We women are the ones that say things about each other – it’s a stereotype and I’m generalising a bit but I have seen it happen. I find men a lot easier than women; you have to be more aware of emotions when working with women. Another way that we are our own worst enemies is that we don’t push ourselves to take on things we don’t know, new challenges. Guys will take on new things and bluff their way through. For example, if you stand up to do a presentation and you’re so scared that you get something wrong – if it’s a man, nobody really takes any notice and they just carry on, but if it’s a woman, other women will be the ones commenting on the mistake rather than letting it go the way men do. There’s also the issue of people assuming that women have attained good jobs or promotions through means other than their own achievements. I think we all know what I mean. And that is not just men thinking that, again it’s other women. How can we overcome the difficulties, perceived or otherwise, for women working together? I think we need to trust each other a bit more. All of us need to bond and support each other. It’s not that hard to crack the ceiling, it’s about being more open minded. Bond together; be proud when a girl gets that promotion; support each other and celebrate each other’s triumphs. Do you have a positive message for women and girls in the workplace? I would really like women going into the workforce not to feel that they are not equal to their male counterparts. They can achieve anything – and women such as Amal as COO of Tamkeen demonstrate that. Bahraini employers are very pro-women; women just need to stop putting up road blocks for each other. JORDANA SEMAAN Head of HR Jordana is head of HR at APM Terminals, which runs Khalifa bin Salman Port. It has 500 staff and it is a male-dominated atmosphere.
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