We commemorated the International Women’s Day with a virtual discussion "Women in Leadership and Workplace Empowerment". The programme was organized in association with WTC Metro Manilla and Export Promotion Council for EOUs and SEZs. Deepa Devi, Vice President, Guidance Tamil Nadu; Pamela Pascual, CEO, WTC Metro Manila; Vikas Bagri, Chief Evangelist, Positive.Gifts; Aninditha Sinha, Head of Corporate Communications, L&T Metro Rail, Hyderabad were the panelists. Swapna Sanand, Digital Columnist and Social Media Strategist and Managing Editor – Generalist, Pepper Content moderated the session. Ms. Pamela Pascual spoke about how women have grabbed the opportunity to shine in the course of the pandemic. A woman's true test of character is challenged at the time of hardship. Women at work are able to handle their professional and family duties efficiently. Mr. Vikas Bagri said internal tools which is the mindset of individuals should be used to break the bias. He is of the opinion that there should be an index to measure women welfare. There are concious and unconscious biases and it is important to talk freely about it. Organizations should adopt women friendly policies which would cover for maternity, childcare etc. Ms. Deepa Devi shared her experiences working in working in Government sector where women are valued on their performances. She gave examples of women leaders who took their organisations to greater heights. She added that women of today is a coersive force and not a divisive force. Ms. Aninditha Sinha opined that organizations should change their thought process and a humane approach with empathy should be practiced. She spoke about the communication and reachout methods adopted by their organisation at the time of the pandemic. She shared the result of a Deloitte study that revealed that it would take atleast 30 years to achieve near gender parity. Mr. Vivek George, Manager, World Trade Center Bengaluru Kochi and Chennai and Ms. Kalyani S. Regional Director, MEPZ also spoke at the event.