“We are losing economic opportunities by missing out on different skills and competences” with these words Ana Andueza, president of Professional Women’s Network Bilbao, opened the Women in Industry (WIN) programme, which AFM, BEC and PWN Bilbao are including in the Biennial for the first time.
“We don’t want to stand back and see what happens. We want to act now. And that is why we are here today, to talk, debate and share, at the conferences, talks and round tables that will take place on BIEMH TV and Learn,” said Andueza.
Xabier Basañez, the General Manager of BEC, took part in the same event and commented that “this joint initiative, which is the result of the agreement between BEC and PWN Bilbao, is a major element of a conference that seeks to raise awareness of the importance of shared leadership and to broaden the debate about the need to enhance the presence of women in the industry”.
Likewise, in the words of the Mayor of Bilbao, Juan María Aburto, “WIN is taking a step forward with what is a present and future challenge. That of the demand for real equality of opportunities, a matter on which there is an almost unanimous real consensus forged after many decades of feminist struggle at all levels.”
Finally, José Pérez Berdud, the president of AFM – Advanced Manufacturing Technologies, said that “Historically, women have always played an important role in industry, and there are abundant records of their contribution in various sectors. This is an undeniable fact, but it is also true that their visibility and recognition have always been very scarce, if not non-existent. Although we have made an interesting journey as a sector, it is no less true that there is still a long way to go to normalize”
WIN started today with the sessions “Creativity, Innovation and Gender” and “Technological Challenges in Industry,” on the BIEMH TV stage located in Hall 4; and “Challenges from the public sphere” at the WIN stand, with the participation of the Basque Government’s Regional Minister for Economic Development, Sustainability and Environment, Arantxa Tapia, at the closing ceremony. The programme will continue tomorrow from 11.00 to 12.30 and on Thursday from 10.00 to 13.30.
This is a space to reflect on and debate the need for gender equality in business and, especially, in industry. It will be a specific area to discuss best practices as regards equality in the sector, given that less than a quarter of employees in this field are women.
The aim is to raise awareness of the need to have more women in the industry, especially in leadership positions, and to get business leaders and politicians more involved in gender equality. Similarly, this programme seeks to offer proposals that make evident the importance of gender balance in the industrial sector.
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