Speakers: Allie Meador, Chief Revenue Officer, RightGift
Why is Women’s History Month/International Women's Day important to you? How are you celebrating?
Allie Meador: Women's History Month is a time to reflect on the achievements made by women of the past, but it's also important for me to celebrate the women in my life, past and present who have made a huge difference. Women who have shown me you can make it in this world and do it on your own time and in your own way. I have so many outstanding examples of strong women in my life. My mom, my sisters, my friends, my colleagues, my managers, and they're all equally deserving of recognition. I'm lucky to work with some women who are changing the world as we speak. They are improving living conditions for others. Speaking for those who don't have a voice and raising awareness for critical issues affecting girls education and menstruation. Women are truly making history every day.
International Women's Day's theme is #EmbraceEquity. How do you think we can work together to impact positive change?
Allie Meador: I love the theme this year for International Women's Day, "embrace equity". Equity is not guaranteed. It is something that we must fight for every day. And unfortunately gender disparity starts at a very early age. Girls are missing weeks of school every year because of their period. With financial constraints at home and no access to products at school, girls are forced to stay home instead of going to school with their peers. This health crisis is called Period Poverty. Period Poverty affects girls and women of all ages, ethnicity, sizes, you know, in every inch of the globe. And because of the pandemic, it has been exacerbated. More than 500 million people lack access to menstrual products. What we need is proper school education about hygiene and health to break this cycle. The stigma and shame of menstruation unfortunately follows girls into adulthood, leading to misinformation about their bodies. We can do a lot more than we think that's that's the good part of all this. My company empowers individuals to serve the immediate needs of their communities. The critical needs with virtual wish lists. This International Women's Day, we have partnered with Period, a national non-profit tackling Period Poverty to mobilize youth activists and CSR minded companies to collect donations and raise awareness. You can donate to any of our current campaigns on our site or you can start your own for free on RightGift.com Women's social and economic development depends on everyone supporting women, not just women supporting their own gender. We are all part of the solution and this International Women's Day. I just hope that we all feel empowered and remember what we say and do can tremendously impact young women everywhere.
What advice would you give to the next generation of women as they begin their careers?
Allie Meador: A piece of career advice I'd give to the next generation of working women is to just stay curious. Curiosity can lead you to very interesting, fun, exciting places in your career, but also in your personal life. So, ask all of your questions, even if you think that they're insignificant or embarrassing because chances are someone in the room has the exact same question as you and people remember the people who ask good questions. Knowledge is power in any industry. I mean, really, no matter what industry you're in, So staying curious will also force you to continuously put yourself in places where you're having to learn new skills or about new topics and expanding your knowledge on topics your peers, um you know, might completely ignore, can come in handy. You might be in an interview in the future where you have a little something extra that your peer might not have, or you might be in a meeting and speak up about something that no one else knows about and your manager will remember that. So be confident in your curiosity, no one knows everything. And just give yourself a break from time to time.
