MICA launches gender sensitive conversation series

To reinforce the gender-sensitive and empowered environment,

MICA

, Ahmedabad recently launched its first-ever conversation series titled ‘MI-Voice Matters’ (My Voice Matters).

The first session of the series was an all women meet, which brought the entire women community of MICA on one platform, to share stories and experiences of workplace well-being, work-life balance and feedback, with an aim to introduce innovative practices that can help women address difficult experiences and deal with similar issues in future. This will be an ongoing series with the goal of influencing policy, structure and culture in institutions where both women and men engage honestly and interact to bring out the best in everyone.

The session was led by MICA Dean Dr.

Preeti Shroff

who began her talk with the quote: ‘Here’s to strong women, may we know them, may we be them and may we raise them’ and then showed a trailer of a recent Gujarati film

Hellaro

, which is a celluloid celebration of breaking free.

Throughout the session, female members of the community shared past experiences of school and corporate bullying and how to deal with men staring and being rude in public spaces, gender biases in workplaces, intimidation by aggressive men (and the same behavior internalized by some women) to name a few.

Commenting on the initiative, Dr.

Shailendra Raj Mehta

, President & Director, MICA said, “MICA has been on the forefront in ensuring gender diversity on its campus, as we maintain 50% or higher female student representation in all our programs. In terms of faculty too, we have a good gender balance. We do acknowledge that women in the workplace have to face a whole different set of concerns compared to their male colleagues. Hence, it becomes imperative for us to ensure a cohesive environment at MICA, an attempt to make a change in the mindset and to provide opportunities for women to work hand-in-hand with male counterparts.”