'High heels and high expectations':

Women asked to challenge the stereotype

On the recently concluded International Women's Day, commemorated on March 8, Standard Chartered Bank and CIMA Sri Lanka hosted some of Sri Lanka's business women and young entrepreneurs to a high value program that encouraged women to challenge the stereotypes.

Held at the CIMA Sri Lanka Auditorium the session also included a very informative session on woman entrepreneurship by Senior Consultant Jakhotiya and Associates, Mumbai, India, Manjiri Jakhotiya.

The evening session was hosted by one of Sri Lanka's leading Power Women herself, Standard Chartered Bank, Country Risk Head Aruni Goonetilleke.

The session titled, High heels and high expectations provided an in-depth understanding of the real situation for working women in Sri Lanka and an insightful glimpse of the evolving role of the corporate woman; the challenges she needs to over come in order to reclaim and reclassify the rightful space that a woman should own in society.

Aruni Goonetilleke has been actively involved in initiatives that empower women in addition to her successful career in Finance; since joining Standard Chartered in 1992, she has held senior positions in the Bank's Sri Lanka office as well as overseas.

She has also spearheaded some of the Bank's Diversity and Inclusion (D and I) initiatives being a member of the Diversity and Inclusion Council, Standard Chartered Bank, Singapore and has been on the executive committees of the Sri Lanka Women's Chamber of Industry and Commerce and the Sri Lanka Business Development Council.

She holds a LLB from the University of Colombo and a LLM from Harvard Law School, USA, where she specialized in Corporate Law and Feminist Legal Theory/Gender Studies. The evening ended with an interactive session.

Empowerment of women and their development is a key focus area of Standard Chartered Bank - the Bank firmly believes that gender equality helps strengthen communities and further economic development.

Standard Chartered Bank has maintained a long-term commitment toward Women's Empowerment initiatives which it acknowledges as an integral part of its operations. Today, approximately 47 percent of the Sri Lanka Branch staff are females and 42 percent of the management staff are women.