Women evaluate the WorkplaCe

Survey reveals how working women see themselves in the workplace

Most women consider employers promote female leadership

Madison Choudhry, Special to the Weekly Journal

The Puerto Rico Department of Labor and Human Resources (DTRH, for its Spanish acronym), collaborated with the Women Who Lead CEO and founder Frances Ríos to conduct the first Puerto Rican Women Workers

Survey. The survey’s findings were recently discussed during the “Reclaim Your Power” event, sponsored by both organizations. . “Through this survey, which was carried out for the first time in the island, we collected the feelings of thousands of women who, for decades, have asked to be heard in their claim for fair, equal treatment and whether they feel there are general manager or the highest-ranking official opportunities for growth and development that promoted female leadership and inclusion. In would allow them to reach levels where as of now response to the question the data shows, out of only men have been able to position themselves the private companies, 54% answered positively. in,” DTRH Secretary Gabriel Maldonado-González Government workers responded with a positive said. 53% and non-profit entities answered with

Women workers from the private sector, the positive 63%. local government and non-profit organizations, Caridad “Cary” Pierluisi, director of the had the opportunity to express Governor’s Office and sister to their opinions and points of view Governor Pierluisi, said that on issues ranging from inclusion, harassment, pay equity, growth In fact, “we listen to the voice of all the women who shared their opportunities and finances in an experiences with us through this open survey available to them for survey and then, all of us as a two months. Out of the 4,501 society will be held responsible Ríos explained, that with “a women who to make sure we implement sample size of 4,051 women, we participated in the what we have learned to have opened a door that exposes study, 3,500 work improve working conditions for the critical position Puerto Rico is for government women and achieve real longin.” agencies and/ term impact and change so that “The women who participated or non-profit future generations may benefit in our survey were able to raise organizations, from this. This is how Puerto several alarms. With this data as 363 were Rico progresses.” evidence, private and government businesswomen, Potential training was also a sectors may now take urgent and 188 were main focus in the survey. measures to reverse what we human resources The directors of Human have been denouncing for years: managers. Resources were asked if they that women in the work force feel believed the companies they a lack of commitment from their work for have adequate annual employers,” Ríos said. training on issues ranging Out of the 4,501 women who participated in the from hostile work environment to sexual study, 3,500 work for government agencies or non- harassment. The data concluded that in regards profit organizations, 363 were businesswomen, to government workers, 91% – the highest and 188 were human resources managers. percentage in the survey– believed they did. On

One of the survey questions was directed to the other hand, 78% of HR directors in private whether the organization’s chief executive officer, companies responded affirmatively, while only

With this data as evidence, private and government sectors may now take urgent measures to reverse what we have been denouncing for years…

Frances Ríos, founder of Women Who Lead

56% of those working for non-profits reported having adequate training.

The question then expounded to ask if the Human Resources staff believed their companies had adequate protocols to prevent hostile work environments and sexual harassment. Again, the female government employees responded with the highest percentage, with 91% believing they did. Those working in the private sector answered with a positive result of 78%.

When asked if their supervisor had actively supported their development and growth, 65% of women in the private sector answered in the affirmative, with non-profit companies following with a positive 56%, and the government employees scoring 46%. “Although there is still a long way to go, this study allows the government and the private sector –as employers and in terms of public policy initiatives– to move towards the right path,” Maldonado-González attested.

In fact,

The Enactus program provides education on how to lead and solve problems with a multi-solution approach.

Students from Egypt’s Ain Shams University won the 2022 Enactus World Cup.

Enactus World Cup provides launching pad for socially conscientious entrepreneurs

The event emphasizes on critical skills building rather than the prize

Zoe Landi Fontana, The Weekly Journal

For the first time, 3,000 visitors from 55 countries gathered in San Juan for the Enactus World Cup 2022. University students, academics, business leaders, and government officials convened to see some of the most innovative projects in development by students worldwide. Although the Enactus World Cup is a competition, for which there can be only one winner, the process is much more important than just the prize. Competition can spur innovation and drive people to learn together and take inspiration from one another. No matter where students go after graduating from Enactus programs, they take the skills to succeed with them anywhere. “Our vision is that young leaders will use innovation and business skills to build a world where all people thrive on a sustainable planet.

That’s what we’re working towards. By going through the Enactus curriculum, students build critical skills like creativity, innovation, problemsolving, working as a team, failing and trying again,” said Robyn Fehrman, President of Enactus.

“It’s not a finish line, but a whole process. The scope of it goes beyond the socially conscientious enterprise that they are involved in. Of course there’s the possibility that they don’t continue in that direction, going into the private sector instead. But they will be going into it with a richer social consciousness.” Many of the problems we are experiencing worldwide are further exacerbated by a problem with leadership. We are facing converging crises –COVID, climate, conflict– that require more impactminded, innovative leaders grounded in making real change. The Enactus program is addressing this internationally by providing education on how to lead and solve problems with a multi-solution

approach. “Anytime we try to solve big problems, it takes an ecosystem approach. We need different solutions. We think that collaboration – one of our core values – is fundamental to making change in the world. Diverse teams, diverse organizations taking different approaches to the same problem,” explained Fehrman.

Our vision is that young leaders will use innovation and business skills to build a world where all people thrive on a sustainable planet.

Robyn Fehrman, Enactus. president and CEO

had far-reaching impacts, addressing social and environmental issues. In Puerto Rico, the champions of Enactus Puerto Rico 2022 provide employment opportunities to people with functional diversity. “Reco”, short for Repurposed Coffee, is a social enterprise that reuses coffee grounds as a base for commercial products, such as organic fertilizer. Because of the use of organic fertilizer, the farmland recovers quicker. Anyone thinking that shrimp shells were simply a nuisance, will be surprised to learned that they can be recycled. In the year of the COVID-19 pandemic, a team of students from Egypt won the competition with the Chito Shrimp Company. The team developed a way to reuse discarded shrimp shells from farmers. Instead of letting the shells go into landfills, their life is extended by being processed into a textile product. In their first year of operation they generated over $1 million in revenue by manufacturing personal protective equipment from the shrimp shell textile. Yet another project addressed the inequalities caused by menstruation for some women in India and led to the formation of micro-businesses throughout the country. In these businesses, the women who didn’t have the opportunity to work can now have the opportunity for employment preparing these eco-friendly sanitary napkins that they can also use. “Women aren’t able to go to work when they are menstruating because they don’t have access to sanitary products. And there are many remote communities where women don’t have the opportunity to work. One of the Enactus projects creates sanitary products from banana leaves,” explained Rosa Hernández, President of Enactus Puerto Rico.