Gender equality: Not simply nice to have, but a must

It’s clear to Sandhya Devanathan, Country Managing Director for Facebook Singapore, that employing more women is crucial to maximising business performance.

As one of the world’s largest social media platforms with over 2.45 billion users worldwide, embracing diversity means being able to make everyone feel right at home, explains Sandhya.

“We cannot have a company or products that don’t adequately reflect the reality of our user base across the world,” she says. “At Facebook, it is important that we have different mindsets and points of views to have a conversation about the company.”

But diversity in the work place goes beyond developing a better company or product. For one thing, there’s a strong and sound economic imperative to having more women in the sector and the workforce in general, says Sandhya.

She cited a McKinsey study on gender equality, published in 2018, which showed that closing the gender gap in Asia Pacific could add US$4.5 trillion to the regional economy.

“Diversity, which I’m really passionate about, is not a good-to-have. It’s a must-have if you want Asia to continue to thrive and grow,” she says.

And that is why she is happy to see many women in charge of big operations and companies in Singapore.

“I see a lot of really strong, amazing women who are building great companies, or are at the helm of great corporates. I see the difference that it can make to have strong leadership that’s diverse in a company,” she says.

“So, my thoughts on diversity is yes, we need to have more of it.”

To this end, she has been a strong advocate of gender diversity at the workplace.

In 2014, as Managing Director of Standard Chartered Singapore, she worked alongside United Nations Women and MasterCard to spearhead the science, mathematics, technology, and engineering (STEM) Resources programme.

Aimed at encouraging girls to pursue careers in the STEM fields where women are historically underrepresented, the programme allows girls to cultivate skills in technology, research, design and construction, strategic planning, improvisation and engineering.

The programme was renamed Girls2Pioneers. From 3,000 school girls in 2014, the programme has now evolved to touch the lives of almost 25,000 girls in Singapore.

“I just helped start it, so I’m not responsible for the 25,000, but we can all play a role in how we show up and the causes that we’re passionate about.”

At Facebook, she leads Connected Women, where women from companies such as LinkedIn and Twitter come together to form a network of women in tech.

While companies have made progress in the past few years, there is much more that can be done to help promote diversity in tech.

“It shouldn’t be just your experiences that shape your passion. I think all of us as leaders, or as people who work in a company, have a role to play in enabling an inclusive culture,” Sandhya notes.

She hopes to see more women step up to leadership positions and become role models for others to follow. “We need more women to be in leadership positions in tech. We’re already seeing that — there are already a bunch of amazing startup owners. These are very inspiring people in Singapore who also give back. I’d love to see more of that happening.”