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    At ET Women's Forum, FB India's Ankhi Das gave some advice: Ladies, see yourself as economic assets

    Synopsis

    Facebook India's public policy director wants women to set goals for themselves.

    Ankhi Das, public policy director, Facebook, India, South and Central Asia.
    Ankhi Das, public policy director, Facebook, India, South and Central Asia
    The Economic Times Women’s Forum 2019 took forward the mission that it launched last year — to collaboratively and urgently build a sustainable culture of empowering India’s half a billion women — through a scintillating day of conversations and debates about encouraging greater participation and reducing gender inequality in every sphere of life, work, and play.

    Economic power is the basis of political power and social power, and education is the key to economic power, said Ankhi Das, public policy director, Facebook, India, South and Central Asia.

    “The entrenched powers do not want to share their power, so it will be a struggle. Women need to see themselves as economic assets. We then need to set goals for ourselves and systematically work towards achieving them,” she said.

    Speaking at the ET Women’s Forum in Mumbai on Friday, Das said she is a firm believer in the power of mentoring as a means of development. She invited the women gathered at the forum to sign up as mentors for Facebook’s Going Online as Leaders (GOAL) programme, which aims to help young women from the tribal regions of India achieve their goals and become leaders of tomorrow.

    Under this initiative, Facebook plans to link successful urban women with expertise in business, education, health, politics and entrepreneurship with tribal women online. “The idea is to inspire, guide and encourage these young women to gain confidence. At next year’s ET Women’s Forum, we hope to present a room full of young tribal women who have benefited from the GOAL program and succeeded in their chosen fields,” she said.

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    The wage gap between men and women in the workplace is an issue worldwide and Das gave salary negotiations as an example of how mentoring can help.

    “We have to research the market value for our skill sets before we go in for the final negotiations, but many of us don’t do that because we worry that we will come across a money-minded. What you need is someone you can give you this knowledge, with whom you can have a conversation on this subject,” she said, in a chat with ET Now’s Sonali Krishna.




    ( Originally published on Feb 11, 2019 )

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