On the 8th of March people around the world celebrate Women’s Day. Though the origin of this day is unknown and widely debated, according to the United Nations it was started on 28th February 1909, in the United States. Women were protesting working conditions in honour of the 1908 garment worker’s strike in New York.
In 1917, during World War I, women in Russia chose to protest and strike for “Bread and Peace”. Four days later, the government granted women the right to vote. This day fell on the 8th of March, marking it as a national holiday in Russia and a huge movement around the world.
Today, the International Women’s Day celebrates the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women and the feministic movement of equal gender parity.
Women in Business_Bocconi Female Students Association’s main goal is inspiring and empowering women and preparing them for what lies in their future.
Today’s article is going to focus on the events that occurred during 8 of March at our university, and the exciting new events that will take place in the future.
The 8th of March has been a busy day for our associates: in the morning, we were involved in a promotional and awareness campaign on campus. In the afternoon we were invited by Amazon Italia HQ for a company visit. Finally, in the evening, together with our partner association Women In Finance, we screened the “DREAM, girl” documentary.
In a world surrounded by technology and social media, what can be a more powerful way to spread awareness? Almost nothing, and for this reason, for the International Women’s Day we recorded a video in collaboration with BocconiTV and interviewed Professor Paola Profeta and students on campus. Some of the topics we covered were about the state of women in the world (but more precisely in Italy) and the importance of feminism and women rights.
We also printed out stickers with powerful quotes, to promote empowerment and distributed it on campus. The activity has been so captivating that we are still receiving positive feedbacks about the video and requests for more stickers in the future. Feminism has become a fashion statement. Whether that’s good or bad or an improvement is a topic for later discussion.
As a mid-day activity, Amazon Italia contacted us to arrange a company visit with the aim of sharing experiences of amazing female managers on this special day. We first had a tour in their new sleek HQ in via Monte Grappa. This was followed by an opportunity to meet three admirable women (Giulia Poli, Chiara Castellano Visaggi and Federica Brezzi). They inspired us with their stories and gave us tips and suggestions on how to survive in the corporate world and how to pursue a career in Amazon as well as in companies they used to work for in the past.
Finally, after a long exhausting but fruitful day, in the evening, in collaboration with Bocconi Women in Finance association, we screened a documentary about the stories of inspiring and ambitious female entrepreneurs, “Dream, Girl”. A must-see documentary for everyone out there. This was followed by a discussion on how to translate the dream to become a female leader into practice, a topic which was very much appreciated by the participants.
What’s next you ask?
Women in Business have a lot more exciting events in stored for their members and other students willing to participate.
We will be hosting three soft skills workshops in collaboration with Nancy Cooklin and an open discussion on Artificial Intelligence in the up-coming days.
For all those living under a rock, Nancy Cooklin is a trainer, a speaker, a life coach and a counsellor, with more than thirty years in the business world. She has a plethora of stories to share about successful women and has also written a book “Crea te stessa” (Make yourself). She will provide us with the tools, skills and methods we need in order to achieve excellence in our personal and professional life.
“Self-leadership is the process by which you influence yourself to achieve your objectives” this is the main theme of the first meeting mentored by our speaker, followed by other two workshops about Emotional Intelligence and Creating Yourself in the upcoming weeks.
We are positive our associates will walk away with valuable take-away tools, practical techniques, and adaptable solutions.
Last, but not least, on the 12th of April we will host “ AI 360°”. The aim is to explore the different fields of application of artificial intelligence: we will have a panel of organizations that successfully applied AI in their business models and get insider information on aspects of AI that are being implemented.
This event will be moderated by Professor Riccardo Zecchina (Professor of Computer Science at Bocconi). Several women speakers are invited and will be contributing to the discussion: Laura Oliva (Co-founder & Ceo at eKuota.com, Financial Risk Analytics for Businesses and member of BoD at Luve), Alessandra Chiuderi (Head of Data Analytics; at Assicurazioni Generali), Parvaneh Shafiei (Senior Data Scientist at EY) and Nancy Cooklin (Trainer, Speaker, Coach and Counselor).
Roberta Morelli and Chiara Iasenzaniro
Women in Business_Bocconi Female Students Association