R10 WIE Support Fund 2015 for WIE AG of Bangladesh Section - PROGRESS Program: AGE

IEEE Region 10 WIE Bangladesh section has arranged an event named AGE: Achieving Gender Equality-saying no to stereotypes on 30 October 2015 under progress support Fund of IEEE. The event was for the professionals. 28 IEEE members and non-members participated in the event. Prior to the event a survey was conducted on female engineers through questionnaire and their activities regarding current gender-equality status and cultural perceptions about women engineers. The target group was the female engineers working in different telecommunication and IT companies, power and energy industries, academia, non-government organizations. The survey has provided a comprehensive picture and statistics of current gender inequality in Bangladesh and it has clearly illustrated the barriers for women getting into and progressing within an engineering field.

Participants of the PROGRESS Program: AGE: Achieving Gender Equality

The event started with a discussion on the survey outcome followed by panel discussion. 4 experts from different technical and professional areas participated in the panel discussion and it was revealed that Gender Stereotype is one of the key issues for gender inequality in the workplace. Based on it, a training program was conducted for the group of female engineers. The training has focused on enhancing the leadership quality through highlighting the elements and perception of gender stereotypes in workplace and the solution, different case studies, individual survival strategies, organizational solution, advice from the experts etc.

Dr. Celia Shahnaz’s speech

At the end of the event, there was an interactive session among the trained group of female engineers where each group escalated 3 workplace related problems and the other group brainstormed and provided different solutions to those problems.

Interactive session among the trained group

The event was very effective for the participants in understanding the gender stereotypes in workplace. It was also a great learning opportunity to overcome the challenges in the workplace. the Quiz competition. The participants showed their interest in joining IEEE and WIE after they got the answers of their queries about IEEE and WIE.