“COLLECTIVELY WE CAN All #BREAKTHEBIAS”- WISTA Celebrates Women’s Day

Women’s International Shipping and Trading Association (WISTA) Sri Lanka concluded yet another successful event held at Cinnamon Grand Hotel to celebrate Women’s Day 2022 with an insightful panel discussion followed by networking and cocktails.

WISTA Sri Lanka President Debbie Jones addressing the gathering, highlighted the importance of collectively breaking the bias and minimizing the gender gap. She also emphasized the positive impact gender equality will bring into the national economy. Debbie urged women to develop competencies, skills, confidence levels to feel equal at all times to take on opportunities and future challenges in the industry. She further elaborated on objectives of WISTA Sri Lanka and the activities carried out to empower women in shipping and logistics, which include promoting shipping and logistics as a preferred industry from a job entry point, strengthening skills and competencies with various initiatives, providing networking and mentoring opportunities.

The panel discussion themed ‘Collectively We Can Break The Bias’ with a challenging and thought-provoking session was moderated by Head of Wijaya Integrated Media Solutions, Gayani Punchihewa with the presence of eminent leaders of Shipping & Logistics industry in  Sri Lanka.  As the key note speaker,  Shehara De Silva spoke about the challenges women face in a male dominant industry, the importance of removing bias at all levels and the importance of prioritizing inclusivity in Organizations. 

Chairman of Sri Lanka Ports Authority – Dr. Prasantha Jayamanne, President / Head of Legal Secretarial, CSR, John Keells Holdings PLC – Ms. Nadija Tambiah, Chairperson of Hatton National Bank PLC – Ms. Aruni Goonetilleke, Transformational coach and a Psychological Counsellor who is also the founder of program “Serenity” – Ms. Dilmi Weerasinghe and Regional Head of People Partners, West Central Asia Maersk – Ms. Katyayani Krishna were a part of the said eminent panel. They shared views on an industry with only 3% female participation and what needs to be done to understand & help each other to break the bias collectively.  

They spoke about the Importance of building skills and competencies irrespective of gender, race, or sexual orientation. Panelists also highlighted the importance of women feeling empowered to pursue leadership opportunities, taking initiatives and being relentless in achieving their ambitions. Panel shared some valuable insights of the importance of having the right support system around women making their partners, parents, families and friends playing a vital role in career progression. The need to be open, vulnerable to reach out, seek assistance when needed and to flush out toxic people obstructing ones progress were also discussed as important factors.

It’s not always easy to balance many roles a woman play and the panel discussed on how women can improve work life balance, to actually look forward to it without feeling guilty and having self-pity. The need for Associations like WISTA to provide the much-needed guidance and collaboration with women in the industry thereby removing bias were discussed in detail by the panel.

The event was well-supported by SAGT as the Corporate Partner, MSC as the platinum sponsor, SALOTA International as the Gold Sponsor, Maersk Lanka, CMA CGM Lanka & Ceylon Logistics as the Silver Sponsors & Wijaya News Paper as the exclusive media sponsor.

WISTA Sri Lanka has been able to carry out many such successful events in the past in keeping with its objectives of raising the profile of women in the maritime sector and working for gender balance in an industry still male dominated.   WISTA as an association has worked tirelessly over the years to encourage women to take up careers in Shipping & Logistics whilst sharing knowledge, building skills and competencies as early as School entry level, creating forums for aspiring women to network, and be inspired.