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| L-R, from top: GCash president and CEO Martha Sazon, DealStreetAsia managing editor Michelle Teo, CXA Group founder and CEO Rosaline Chow Koo; Her Capital Angel investor/founder Gail Wong, TheAsianParent Group CEO and founder Roshni Mahtani |
Visible role models can help inspire more women
leaders
Potential women leaders have been limited because of outdated gender
norms and lack of mentoring and support. The visibility of successful female
role models for girls and women is vital, particularly in fields that have long
been dominated by men, like finance and technology.
In the webinar entitled, “Is VC Funding for Women Founders Getting
Any Better?” organized by DealStreetAsia, a Singapore-based financial news
website, women leaders shared their insights on the gender disparity in venture
capital (VC) funding and how women are capable of building their startups and
becoming a leader. Among the panelists was GCash president and CEO Martha Sazon
who shared the importance of visual role modeling in order to address the issue
of a lack of female leaders.
“Leading by example is important. Women founders need to be shown more
to people,” said Sazon.
Although finance and technology companies are mainly dominated by men
and making it in these industries may seem intimidating to women, Sazon helped
millions of Filipinos during the pandemic through the top fintech company,
GCash. The Philippines’ leading mobile wallet company currently has 2.5 million
merchants and a 46 million subscriber base, which is equivalent to more than 40
percent of the population having a GCash account. When Sazon was just starting
her career at Globe, the top telecommunications company in the Philippines, she
said it was initially dominated by men but now, women leaders have also emerged
in the company.
“We're opening up not just the tech industry but the fintech industry as
well to women. Fintech is a good industry for women to thrive because women are
naturally good decision makers and problem fixers,” said Sazon. “We have to
create more ‘I want to be like her moments.’ Someone just has to pave the way
for it,” she added.
In order to have more women leaders, Sazon said that mentoring should
start at a young age. She said it’s vital to guide women in high school about
the right college course to take, the job that’s a good fit for them, and the
right skill set in starting a business. “Young girls should be given more
visual cues. As we provide them these visual cues and mentoring, we should be
there to continuously guide them,” she said.
She added, “We need to be shown to more people so we get to a point that
we are ‘ordinary,’ that it becomes a normal thing for women to become
successful with their decisions.”
Sazon said that encouraging more women to lead could be as easy as
creating chat groups for women or building an organization to support them. She
also shared that she’s fortunate to have had great mentors on her journey.
The presence of women in leadership roles and the opportunity to network
with them is crucial in helping motivate other women to advance in their
careers. These role models will ultimately inspire women to aim higher
so they can then become an example to younger generations as well.
Sazon also encouraged women to trust their capability, articulate their
purpose and believe in it. She leads GCash with the “Finance for All” vision,
offering digital products and services that are safe and convenient from paying
bills via the app’s network of 600 billers to buying essentials on the GLife
feature on the app.
For more information,
visit www.gcash.com.
