On the afternoon of last Wednesday, October 19, and coinciding with the international day to fight breast cancer, we celebrated in the plenary hall of the City Hall of Pravia, the day in round table format »Women and Business». An event in which, through real experiences and from different perspectives – academic, business and technological – we have valued talent and the important role played by female profiles in companies and particularly in ebroker.
Our project is based on people.
Under this motto, with which we try to promote our goal of placing people above all things, we attended a conference in which, with different experiences and testimonies, the participants gave voice to the problems and difficulties that day by day find in their professional career.
The event, moderated by Flor Cid, director of the sector media Very safe , had the special participation of Begoña Cueto, Vice Chancellor of Transfer and Relations with the company of the University of Oviedo, and Pilar Argüelles, Branch Director of Insurance Brokerage Bank, a company belonging to the community of platform users. Together with Higinio Iglesias, CEO of ebroker, and David Álvarez, Mayor of the City Council of Pravia, addressed, among other issues, the still low percentage of women in managerial positions in the insurance sector and the thoughts, measures and actions that, from their point of view, should be carried out to reverse this situation.
Rootedness in the territory, talent management, the representation of women in senior management positions or the influence of gender on the choice of professional opportunities were the topics on which the participants in this first part were able to debate and share opinions in a open and stretched form.
«At the University we strongly influence everything that has to do with roles and the need for references. That need is what leads us to break with certain gender roles that have pigeonholed us. Relevant women from the scientific, engineering or data fields must come out saying that there are also women working in these fields. That is why it seems to me that this type of forums and conferences help notably to this, and, from here I thank a company like ebroker for putting these issues on the table» commented Begoña Cueto, Vice Chancellor of Transference and Relations with the company of the University of Oviedo.
From a business point of view, Pilar Arguelles, after a brief introduction about how attractive and at the same time unknown the insurance sector is, defended the position of women based on her experience, highlighting the lack of female professionals in decision-making bodies and boards and denouncing the lack of opportunities that women have to access management positions. In her speech she relates, '»The worst thing is not that number, the worst thing is having to continually prove that you have the same value as them in order to be there. Having the opportunity to move up and being told no because the person in charge does not want women in his management team and being offered a consolation prize in return is very hard to assimilate.». Faced with this situation, the branch director of Bango Correduría de Seguros gathered her team, joined forces and overcame the situation, managing to leave behind all those who one day said no.
For both Higinio Iglesias and David Álvarez, it is essential that both the administrations within their areas of competence, as well as the management bodies of companies, promote measures that favor the arrival of women in decision-making positions. They determine that this existing inequality, under no circumstances should be governed by the professional's sex, but by the person. «Companies work much better when there is a natural balance between men and women; and when that balance not only exists in less relevant positions, but also when it exists in management» adds Higinio.
Flexibility, conciliation and opportunities, key aspects for change.
The debate, divided into two clearly differentiated parts, also featured, in a second part, a large representation of Mujeres de ebroker, who exemplified, argued and valued their contribution to the project as a whole, while offering their point of view view on some essential aspects in terms of equality, conciliation and talent, as well as personal experiences in their professional development in ebroker.
The protagonists, Sandra Prieto, Head of Internal Services , Monica Garcia, Commercial Director, Nuria Alfaro, Director of Marketing and Communication, Helena Iglesias, Project Engineer, Lucia de las Heras, Tech Lead and Sofia gonzalez, Data Analyst, positioned themselves, and, among many other topics, they talked about entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship or the way in which they landed in a company like an ebroker.
Experience of ebroker women.
Nuria Alfaro, Mónica García and Sandra Prieto, agreed in their speeches in explaining the evolution of their career, the importance of the multidisciplinarity of the teams, the vision they have as managers of young talent, flexibility and conciliation as a key aspect of any worker,in ebroker there is no debate about conciliation. Reconciliation is not only the stage of parenting, it also affects young people if they want to continue training to reconcile with their studies; we have colleagues who are professionally dedicated to sports, in short, people who have many other concerns and who must reconcile. ebroker bases its project on people and I think that is also an interesting point», argues Monica Garcia.
Both Nuria and Sandra share that in the evolution of their career «far from having any problems, the important thing is that ebroker prioritizes people. ebroker bases the development of its workers on trust, responsibility, talent and worth regardless of aspects such as age or gender, basing motivation on exciting and innovative challenges that commit you to the company. "
Helena Iglesias, from the project engineering team, comments that during her university years «most of my classmates were men. Despite this, I have to say that I have a very good experience with all my colleagues, I have never felt less for the simple fact of being a woman, and what is more, I think it has helped me to develop many faculties that I think I have from work in team and to reaffirm the strength of diversity in teams.” However, he states that «It must be emphasized that we are a minority, and not because we are less valid, but because in society we have unconsciously established the thought that technical careers are for men and this is a social tendency to invalidate women in some activities. This is something that needs to change.»
Lucía de las Heras, with her intervention raised the laughter of the crowded room, arguing to a certain extent what was previously reported. Recounting her first steps in her professional training, she said the following: «We were very few girls. It was an institute where electronics, electricity, boilermaking and mechanics were taught, so... 5 girls in high school. My experience was good, but of course, then it is normal that in companies of this nature you do not see female profiles» and how society must be educated, from a very early age, not to be biased by the sex of the person, and that this determines the studies and ultimately their personal and professional development. «In early stages it does not occur to you what you can study or do according to what things. One of the problems that there are no more profiles like mine in companies is that, basically, many girls do not have this type of profession in the imagination» added, Lucia.
To close the second part of the table, Sofía González, Data Analyst, firmly believes in team diversity as a growth strategy for any company or professional project. The young woman from Pravia bases her discourse on the fact that «the more diversity there is in the teams, the more variety of ideas and the more different points of view can be contributed, thus enriching the company and those workers who are part of it.»
To put an end to the day, Flor Cid and Higinio Iglesias thanked the participants and all the attendees for their presence at a necessary event that gives voice and values the role of women in the company.
Take a look at the full video of the day here:
We leave you a selection of photos as a summary of the event:
