The launch Ceremony for Google’s global initiative, Womenwill, was carried out recently at the MAS Innovation Centre in Colombo. Womenwill, an initiative from Google aims provide equal opportunity to women around the world by giving them the skills and support to enhance digital literacy, entrepreneurship, inclusive workplace and leadership in women, with the ultimate goal of bridging gender gaps. Womenwill has now been launched in over 4 continents with a growing community of over 5000 female professionals and entrepreneurs.

Despite the rise of female entrepreneurs, women remain greatly underrepresented in the ranks of top management even in the most developed markets around the world. Even in Sri Lanka, there was a dip of female participation in the workforce from 41% in 2010 to 36% in 2016 (World Bank Report, 2017) while the senior management roles occupied by women fell from 8% in 2009 to 4% in 2016 (salary.lk). In the global context, women make up half the world’s population but only contribute only 37% of global GDP.  Google’s aim is to support and develop programs so women in every market can connect to the information they need and the tools to make the most of it – to help them learn, succeed, and be heard. They do this by empowering women through proper skill training programs, mentoring sessions and workshops conducted under Womenwill.

Google executes these programs globally through its own technology & business Communities.  Google Business Groups (GBG) are Google’s global network of Communities for business professionals and startups, reaching out to over 150,000 entrepreneurs from around the world with a presence in over 80 countries, carrying out various Google training programs, workshops and events such as GDayX, Google IO, Devfest, Google Developer Days and more. The local Google Business Community chapter is GBG Colombo and the local deployment of Womenwill is conducted by the same.

The Womenwill launch event was attended by approximately 150 participants representing female entrepreneurs and working professionals  from multiple industries (IT, FMCG, Automobile, Banking, Tourism & Hospitality, Financial Services, Marketing Agencies, Retail Institutions, Healthcare and more, representing 63 Companies,  as well as a few final year University students. The sessions which ran from 9.30am to 12 noon were conducted by a Panel of prominent female speakers and industry experts.

The event was kicked off by Sajini Jayawardena (Community Manager - Google GBG) with a session on ‘Be empowered and empower others - introduction to womenwill’, followed by a session by Indu Nanayakkara (Womenwill Lead - Sri Lanka & Co Manager GBG) on the Themes and Programme outline for Womenwill.

Keynote speech-‘Leading in a connected world’ was conducted by Ajita Kadirgamar ( Writer, PR & Social Media Consultant). The following sessions ‘from dormant to buzzling’ and ‘Just a girl who went for it’ and ‘Think like an architect’ were conducted by Dr. Shanika Arsecularatne (Cosmetic Physician), Jayomi Lokuliyana (Co-Founder / Chief Executive Officer – zmessenger), Karin Wijeratne (Head of Brands – Favourite Group). Next Rayhana Jiffry (Founder/CEO - Glitteray) and Roshani Kumarasinghe (Beauty blogger & Youtuber) shared their  own inspirational story of ‘Breaking the glass ceiling’ and ‘A YouTube journey to fame’ , connecting with most of the female participants at the venue.

The program was sponsored by MAS Innovation Center, Spa Ceylon, Park Street Gourmet, Anim8 and Paan Paan.