There were an estimated 8.3 million women-owned businesses in the United States in 2012, and women earned 60 percent of the master’s degrees, according to 2010 testimony by Catalyst to the U.S. Joint Economic Committee. What’s more, the number of women-owned firms with $10 million or more in revenue has increased by more than 50 percent in the decade that ended in 2012.
Clearly the business world is no longer a “men’s club” and it shouldn’t be. Women entered the corporate management world in the late 1980s and have continued to climb the ranks ever since. But unfortunately, the glass ceiling still exists, and women are still facing challenges that men do not when advancing their careers.
In fact, among Fortune 500 companies, women make up less than 3 percent of the C-suite positions and hold roughly only 15 percent of board seats, according to Catalyst. The fallout from this ratio trickles down from the executive and board levels into every area of business and politics.
As leaders and influencers of future generations, women must actively fight the gender gap. And men should help in this battle, too. And for the women of the future to thrive, women today need to start thriving ourselves.
Here are the List of ROSHNI Women Leaders and Influencers and know who are they :
1. Raji Kumar
7. Mira Nair
8. Pooja Batra
Dr. Rashmee Sharma knows better than most that life comes filled with the unexpected. In 1986 her future seemed already to be laid out in a straight, neat, comfortable line. She was already widely known throughout her native country of India as an award-winning poet, journalist, editor, and television personality, and her picture-perfect private life revolved around her husband, an officer in the Indian Army, and their two young children. Tragically on Aug. 25 of the same year that all changed with her husband’s death from a sudden heart attack.
“It was a very sad time for me and my children,” Sharma told me in a recent interview. “I had already achieved recognition and fame, but I had lost the man I loved, and my children were now living without a father.”
Wanting to provide her children with a new environment and a new start in their young lives, Sharma in 1989 moved with them to Seattle. There she taught American literature at Washington State University while simultaneously pursuing a doctoral degree in that same subject. She also began to resume her career in journalism, serving as the northwestern American correspondent for several prestigious American and international news organizations.
“For the first time since I lost my husband,” Sharma recalled, “I possessed a sense of comfort and tranquility. My children had adjusted wonderfully to life in America. I loved teaching, enjoyed my doctoral studies and was thrilled to restart my career as a journalist. I possessed the feeling that my life was back on a steady, uncomplicated, and predictable course.”
New York-based Roshni Media Group, a multi-media platform known for its award-winning coffee table books profiling accomplished global leaders from various fields and industries, will host its first-ever “Roshni Media Awards for Inspirational Achievers” gala on May 29 at New York’s Taj Pierre Hotel.
The event will recognize inspiring South Asians, and will include the launch of the Roshni Emerging Leaders 2015 coffee table book and the Roshni Global Leaders 2016 program featuring distinguished global leaders of South Asian origin.
“We are so excited to be partnering with the Consul General and various other amazing sponsors to bring the first Inspirational Achievers Awards of this kind to New York City,” said Dr. Rashmee Sharma, Roshni Media’s founder, at the Indian Consulate on Dec. 5. “Over the past 10 years, we’ve honored and interviewed so many incredible and inspirational people who serve as role models to the younger generation. We want to recognize them publicly for their achievements and contributions, as part of our mission to create global diversity awareness.”
Sharma and Roshni president Mani Kamboj announced the forthcoming awards ceremony at the consulate kickoff event, which was hosted by New York Consul General Dnyaneshwar Mulay. Among the prominent business, finance, fashion and entertainment industry leaders in attendance were designer Bibhu Mohapatra, banker Nandita Bakhshi, TV Asia chairman/CEO H.R. Shah, banker Kamesh Nagarajan, Indo-American Arts Council executive director Aroon Shivdasani, Ethan Allen Interiors chairman-president-CEO Farooq Kathwari, actress/TV personality Pooja Kumar Mathur, actress Poorva Bedi and actress Sheetal Sheth.
Renowned filmmaker Mira Nair is among the many esteemed South Asian individuals who have been honored by Roshni Media publications, others including Salman Rushdie and Fareed Zakaria.
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