Although there is still a long way to go, strong gender diversity initiatives in the workplace may slowly be starting to help change attitudes and perceptions. Children are now growing up seeing – and celebrating – more women in leadership roles in business, science, and technology. The hope is this eventually becomes the norm rather than the exception.
In 2021, Dassault Systèmes launched the Women’s Initiative Network’s WIN Conversations series to share some fresh and unique perspectives on inclusion, equality and equity within the workplace. As part of the series, we bring you two new conversations featuring Tom Acland, CEO of 3DEXCITE and Tahera Kuhl, VP of our Business Services Industry, who share their views on the importance of gender diversity and inclusion in every aspect of business.
Inspirational leaders set examples
Tom Acland, who lived in Germany for years, remembers being inspired by Geman Chancellor Angela Merkel’s humanity and her ability to navigate challenging and emotional negotiations. For Tom, strong and diverse leadership is an integral part of business goals. “Many of our clients audit and track our performance against diversity criteria. So we must maintain a high standard in that respect. The second important thing is that in some of our programs, like the 3DEXPERIENCE Labs, we select startups to join our compmany partly based on The 17 UN Goals for Sustainable Development, and one of them is about gender diversity,” said Tom.
Watch Tom’s full interview below:
Women are reaching leadership roles
Tahera Kuhl has been working in technology for over 25 years, and joined Dassault Systèmes in 2016. During her career, she’s often been in a male-dominated environment. “When I was growing up, I was advised at school to take a secretarial course. I ended up doing a degree in biochemistry. With my daughters, I’ve been very conscious not to expose them to the typical things that you hear about. And I’m very proud to say that they’re now studying math and physics. And who knows where that will take them?”
Watch Tahera’s interview here:
Discover more about Win Conversations
Closing the gender gap in the workplace
Maryann is a Senior Communications Manager on the Dassault Systèmes corporate communications team. She’s been with the company for over 16 years, in roles ranging from marketing communications,internal communications, creative and branding, blogging to marketing programs manager.