{"id":50294,"date":"2022-07-22T11:26:00","date_gmt":"2022-07-22T03:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/?p=50294"},"modified":"2022-07-21T11:28:36","modified_gmt":"2022-07-21T03:28:36","slug":"qbo-innovation-hub-empowers-women-leaders-to-keep-sharing-their-stories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/2022\/07\/22\/qbo-innovation-hub-empowers-women-leaders-to-keep-sharing-their-stories\/","title":{"rendered":"QBO Innovation Hub empowers women leaders to keep sharing their stories"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For QBO Innovation Hub, a pioneering force in the Philippine startup industry, celebrating women\u2019s achievements is a year-long celebration.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Philippines\u2019 first public-private partnership platform for startups has always had women empowerment at the core of its mission, especially in an industry as male-saturated as the tech and startup industry. From major milestones such as key partnerships with organizations like Investing in Women and the establishment of the Startup Pinay initiative, to smaller but equally important events such as QBO\u2019s monthly QLITANS, WORQSHOPS, and Startup Pinay BOOTQAMPS wherein the organization shines the spotlight on women-led startups and give them the platform and tools they need to succeed, QBO makes sure that they create a safe space for their community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In line with this year\u2019s theme of \u201cBreak the Bias\u201d, the Women\u2019s Month QLITAN utilized the engaging and unique pecha kucha <\/em>format. Select speakers from the Startup Pinay<\/a> community\u2014industry leaders, startup newcomers, and enablers\u2014were given 400 seconds and 20 images to share their own stories of how they broke and continue to break biases.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy life has been a story of avoidance. Somehow, I managed to navigate to avoid biases\u2014not because they don\u2019t exist, but because I know that they do,\u201d began Connected Women CEO and Co-Founder Gina Romero, who opened the floor with her highly-engaging and deeply personal story. As a daughter of a domestic overseas Filipino worker and a British driver, whose life started in the UK before returning to the Philippines with her parents to start their agri-preneur business, she talked about her struggle to find her personal balance\u2014between privilege and humility, luck and misfortune, failure or success\u2014and her own place in the world despite her unconventional life. She goes on to explain how this personal struggle eventually translated into her professional life. \u201cI know what it\u2019s like to not be able to fit in and to be underestimated. I\u2019ve had to hide the fact that I was married to my co-founder when we set up our company, keep my pregnancies a secret, and avoid letting people know that I am not a degree holder.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nicole Medavillo, an undergraduate student, and Product Design Intern at Swarm, faced another internal struggle that feels all too familiar for many Filipino women\u2014internal misogyny and self-deprecation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs early as my pre-college days, I\u2019ve experienced both misogyny and internal misogyny in what seemed to be even the smallest details, which in hindsight, has led me to believe that I\u2019m not good enough and that I need to push myself harder to earn even a speck of recognition,\u201d said Medavillo. At her young age, she\u2019s already had to spread herself too thinly, had to constantly prove herself at school and at home, downplay her own achievements, all under the guise for self-improvement and for the assurance of a secure future. \u201cAs women, we have to hustle twice as hard because we don\u2019t want to get left behind. We know the system is against us. Too many times, I\u2019ve had to stop myself and ask if this is all worth it. Honestly, I still don\u2019t have the answer to that, but I know that it\u2019s a process that starts with self-acknowledgement.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Women across different fields and backgrounds have always felt that they had to deal with their experiences on their own, as well as learn to navigate their industries differently from their male counterparts\u2014especially for male-dominated ones such as the startup industry.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBeing a woman in a startup is no joke. We\u2019re here because we yearn to be part of the bigger mission to add value to our industry and contribute in a meaningful way. However, this yearning is countered by the demands of the startup life,\u201d said Celine Veloso, Draper Startup House General Manager. She delves into the ups and downs\u2014the continuous restructuring, employee turnovers, revenue and metric demands, generally longer hours, and ultimately, the challenge of being a woman. \u201cIt\u2019s an added layer. I take extra time to plan what to wear, how to speak and present myself, all because I am a woman in a startup.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biases against women coupled with the rigorous demands of the workplace can take a toll on a person\u2019s overall health and wellness. Which poses the question: until when will women have to live with this additional weight on their shoulders?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn an unbiased world, we can be our authentic selves without any judgment. But to achieve this, we need to put in the work,\u201d concluded Romero. \u201cLet\u2019s do our part to break the bias\u2014starting with ourselves at home, until we can eventually take it to the workplace where we can empower our community to be intolerant against ignorance, discrimination, and disinformation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For a little over two hours, the pecha kucha<\/em> format allowed people to be vulnerable within the safe space that QBO has created for its community. In just the six minutes assigned to them, audiences listened to the speakers\u2019 innermost thoughts and personal struggles, and deeply resonated with them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAt the end of the day, biases will continue to exist \u2014affecting how women are perceived as leaders and fueling the persistent problem of women-led startups getting much less funding than men, among other issues. However, simply having a platform to shine a light on the issue can spark solutions.t\u2019s through these moments of personal breakthroughs and shared experiences that we become aware of our prejudices, and can start to work towards a more empowered future for all.\u201d said Katrina Rausa Chan, QBO Innovation Hub Executive Director<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Even as Women\u2019s Month has ended, the fight against biases and the mission to empower women, not only in tech but across all industries, continues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe hope that through these events, our community is inspired to be proud and make their stories known , because we believe they are shared experiences and can resonate with many Filipino women,\u201d said Chan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With QBO Innovation Hub and Startup Pinay<\/a>, this is just the beginning as they plan to continue rolling out more initiatives, events, and programs geared towards their community of Filipino tech heroes, female leaders, newcomers, enablers, and allies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Biases against women coupled with the rigorous demands of the workplace can take a toll on a person\u2019s overall health and wellness. Which poses the question: until when will women have to live with this additional weight on their shoulders?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":50295,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[96,2727,1656],"class_list":["post-50294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","tag-technology","tag-technology-adaption","tag-technology-investment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50294\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}