In March, we celebrated International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month. At HARMAN, our HARMAN Women’s Network (HWN) chapters organized engaging programs, inspiring talks from leadership, and diverse events. Throughout the month, women (and their allies) come together to fight for gender equality and highlight the role of women.
Let’s take a look at a few highlights from our local International Women’s Day events.
The HARMAN India HWN chapter
In India, the HARMAN Women Network lined up exciting webinars to celebrate #IWD2021.
The Team started the month with a panel discussion featuring industry leaders and guest speakers who shared their thoughts on #ChooseToChallenge. The panel featured HARMAN leaders Anantha Krishnan, Vice President, Engineering Centre of Excellence - Automotive Division, Rajalakshmi Sakthivel, Senior Director, Car Audio – Automotive Division, Gajendra Singh Chowhan, VP & Global GM, Smart Infrastructure – DTS, along with guest speaker Nidhi Tandon.
The panel talked about what IWD meant - challenging bias both conscious and unconscious, celebrating women's achievements, building inclusive workplaces, working toward closing gender gaps, promoting equality, giving voice to everyone at the table, and how men can be better allies. Special thanks to Bindu James for moderating this panel.
WO-MEN Automotive Summit in Germany
HWN Germany celebrated IWD by participating in the 3rd WO-MEN Automotive Summit. Exclusively designed for women working in the Automotive business, the virtual event featured 30 women speakers from BASF, BMW, McKinsey, McLaren, SAP, and Volkswagen AG.
With 339 attendees from 24 countries, the HARMAN-sponsored webinar focused on the business issues within the automotive industry followed by an in-depth discussion on diversity.
THE HWN Germany contributed with a round table discussion on ‘Experiences per Mile – how can the Connected Car become a woman’s personal assistant?’ presented by Carolin Caparelli.
Celebrating Diversity, Equity & Inclusion in China
In China, the celebrations commenced with an inclusive panel discussion on ‘Diversity, Equity & Inclusion’ that featured insights from Dr. Jackie Chen, President of HARMAN China, and other members of the executive team, Andy Tsui, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Product Development & Engineering Consumer Audio, HARMAN, Jerry Shao, Vice President of Finance, HARMAN China and Northeast Asia, and Lixin Liu, Vice President, HR, HARMAN China.
The Shanghai-based, live-streamed event connected site leaders from seven offices to attract nearly 200 attendees from across China. The result was a dynamic two-hour journey in support of creating a more diverse, equal, and inclusive culture.
In Chengdu, the HWN Chapter conducted an activity – ‘Diversity Beauty in Life - Tie-dye DIY’. The event witnessed more than 20 women employees showcasing their designer artwork.
HARMAN Japan celebrates #IWD2021 virtually
Aligning with our global DE&I vision to make every employee feel welcomed, valued, and empowered, the HARMAN Women’s
Network Japan led by Fumiko Hasegawa, Engineer Test & Qualification, Mayuko Nakanishi, Consumer Sales Support, Mayumi Takizawa, Business Associate, and Miho Watanabe, Business Coordinator, celebrated #IWD2021 virtually with diverse programs.
The Team showcased an overview of the diversity initiatives implemented by the HWN Japan shared the vital women workforce data and concluded the #IWD2021 with a free-flowing virtual panel discussion on the topic - Current Work Environment.
‘Dia Del A Mujer’ in Mexico
Meanwhile, HWN Mexico celebrated #IWD2021 organizing several inclusive Conferences, Workshops, and Events across HARMAN
offices in Juarez, Queretaro and Tijuana.
The key topics of the conferences, workshops and events included engaging panel discussions by HWN Mexico and Female Leaders, Resilient Leadership - Ana Maria Magana, #ChoosetoChallenge with HWN Chapter Leader innovation – Deanna Kossaras, #ChoosetoChallenge with HWN Chapter Leader Life & Work balance” – Angela Dureen and many more.
On the occasion, a special food ‘Menu With A Cause’ was arranged at the office cafeteria. The donations collected from the meal purchase was donated to Instituto Queretano de la Mujer, a non-profit organization supporting women.
The event concluded with senior leaders rewarding 20 high-performing women employees for their contributions during the challenging 2020.