Mary Elizabeth Wieder G’09
WOMEN SUPPORTING
WOMEN IN VERONA When Mary Elizabeth Wieder G’09 moved to Verona, Italy, she was looking for a professional women’s network that would support her in her goal of making a career in international marketing. When she couldn’t find what she needed, she built it herself from the ground up.
Gender equality in the workplace is an international issue, but in Italy the gender gap is particularly stark: less than 50% of women are part of the workforce at all. Progress has been slow, with a negligible increase over the last decade mostly confined to the country’s industrial north. Local and national policies that support professional women – and in particular working mothers – have lagged behind those of other EU countries. Culture and religion play a role in maintaining traditional gender roles; many people still believe that women need to choose between work or having a family. When 19
AU P M AGAZ I NE
I first arrived in the country, I was looking to connect with other women who were facing the same challenges I would be. At the time, the nearest network was in Milan – nearly 100 miles from where I lived in Verona. One day, it just clicked: I could build a local network myself. Verona Professional Women Networking (VPWN) was born. As an American, the networking ethos has long been ingrained in my professional approach, but I quickly learned that it wasn’t as prevalent in Italian culture. My experience as a professional
Photo: Elisa Viluppi
woman in the US and Europe had cemented my view that networking plays a vital role in advancing the cause of gender equality in the workplace. When I established VPWN, its main aim was to unite professional women across Verona to help them begin to have open dialogue on gender equality. The underlying question was, “How do we create opportunities for women?” My answer: by bringing them together. In order to reach this conclusion, I drew on my own personal and professional experiences. I was born and raised in Allentown, Pennsylvania. In
