By Celeste Krewson
Staff Writer
Women’s rights is an ongoing topic that has sparked countless movements and figureheads. The fight for gender equality has encompassed voting rights, domestic violence and workplace rights. Workplace rights are an ongoing issue, with women still making 78 cents for every dollar earned by men. At the College, students can become more aware of these issues through the Women in Business (WIB) club.
“The goals of Women in Business are to promote gender equality in the workplace and the business school,” said Maria McLaughlin, a junior accounting major and the co-president of the club.
Plenty of opportunities are provided for members of Women in Business to become better business workers, and to form lasting connections with other members.
“Our motto is ‘Empowered women empower women,’ and our goal is to create a place where women can support and encourage each other,” McLaughlin said. “Our meetings create an opportunity to bring members together and allow them to improve their professional skills while forming friendships with each other. We also conduct fundraisers to assist local communities.”
Women in Business welcomes any student, regardless of their major or gender identity. Students interested in joining WIB can attend their upcoming event on April 28th, the Women’s Leadership Summit. The virtual event will feature five to six guest speakers, with the first half of the event focused on a Q&A, while the second half will have the Zoom session separate into breakout rooms, each discussing a different topic with a different guest speaker. Though this is a three-hour event, students are not obligated to stay the entire time.
“We were able to host one in-person [event] in 2019, and had to cancel [the rest] because of the pandemic last year,” said Emily Lai, junior accounting major and co-president of WIB. “Even though this year looks completely different than what we'd originally hoped for, I'm still so excited to hear from our different guest speakers and be able to connect with those speaking and those attending.”
Meetings for Women in Business are hosted at 2:30 p.m. on Wednesdays. Normally, these meetings take place in the business building, but are currently being held via Zoom. At these meetings, students can learn how to make their resumes and LinkedIn profiles the best they can be, or discuss topics such as self-improvement.
“Our meetings and events have strengthened my professional development skills and [have] facilitated my journey into the workforce,” said McLaughlin.
WIB events are usually held once a month, hosting many different professionals in the business world. Once a year, the club also holds a Women’s Leadership Summit. Though all of this is currently online, members look forward to when these events can be held in person again.
“A recent event was the meeting our VP of Philanthropy, Shreya, hosted,” said Cindy Nguyen, junior accounting major and vice president of WIB. “She talked about how to be a boss lady — from planning to self care, hustling, and just working to create a positive environment to be the best version of yourself! At the end, we also played a quick kahoot game and our winners were able to win a little self-care prize!”
Women in Business strives to help women grow into professionals in their chosen field. With the events the club hosts, they can give back to the community, along with promoting further equality in the workplace.
“This organization has also provided me with several amazing opportunities to hold leadership positions, which have developed me both professionally and personally, and I hope to be able to create this same space for other people,” said Lai.
Students seeking personal growth can look to Women in Business for a group of people willing to support them every step of the way.
“Everyone in WIB is so welcoming, helpful, and caring,” said Nguyen. “You can ask anyone questions about anything, from classes to professors to how to best study for an exam, people are there to help.”
