ADVANCING TALENTED YOUNG WOMEN
Outstanding women under 35 in Southeast Asia will soon be able to vie for the UK’s Women of the Future Awards, writes S. SHAMALA
A19-YEAR-OLD woman discovered two asteroids during her gap year and one of them was named after her. Another woman came up with an app called DigiMeal to help struggling students cook with ingredients from a community fridge. And, a third woman opened a shop at an exclusive men’s only tailoring enclave in London.
These women have one thing in common — they were recognised by the United Kingdom’s Women of the Future Awards programme for breaking frontiers.
Malaysian women will soon be eligible for the recognition as the founder, Pinky Lilani, is planning to introduce the programme to Southeast Asia.
She says she wants to encourage, motivate and provide role models to inspire and boost female talent in the region.
“I found that young women have so much talent, as well as energy, and they want to make a difference,” says the 63-year-old internationally acclaimed champion for women, food guru and motivational speaker.
“But, there were very few places they could go to meet people like themselves or those who were much more senior. And, there was no platform to recognise their achievements,” says Lilani in a phone interview with New Sunday Times recently.
“I only saw programmes for more senior women who were halfway through their careers and did not need much help. That was why I wanted to look at these young, inspiring stories.”
She says she was impressed and inspired by the women she had met during a recent trip to Kuala Lumpur.
“We were so impressed during our visit organised by British High Commissioner to Malaysia Vicki Treadell, who is chairing the judging panel,” adds Lilani.
“In Southeast Asia, people will not put themselves forward. They need someone to tell them to do it, while in some cultures people will be happy to do so. Therefore, we want Southeast Asian women to profile themselves.
“For instance, they say when there is a job advertisement, a man will apply for it even when he can do only about 50 per cent of it. If a woman can do 80 per cent of it, she still won’t, saying she can’t do the 20 per cent.
“We need more people to hold their hands, bring them out into the public domain.”
Lilani says she hopes Malaysian women will enter themselves for the Women of the Future Awards.
“I hope they will be able to share their stories. I hope we can build a network for them, to be the beacon and inspire others. And, what I really want is, since there are fantastic people in the UK who run their businesses, I want them to connect with people in Southeast Asia, so we are going to use an app called the Grip App, which we can download.”
Lilani says the app allows people to go through and download profiles of people in different continents through the Women of the Future community.
“By connecting people, we are going to help many women,” she adds.
She is a patron of several charities and was named one of Britain’s 100 most entrepreneurial women, one of the 30 most influential Muslim women and appears on the BBC Radio 4 Women’s Hour Powerlist. She was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2007 for services to charity, and Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2015 for services to women in business.
Lilani, who was born in India’s Calcutta (now Kolkata), studied Educational Psychology for her first degree and a master’s in Social Communications Media, specialising in Journalism and Public Relations, in India. She migrated to Britain after getting married.
“I had a semi-arranged marriage and moved to England in January, 1978. I had done my degree and post-graduate studies in India, but I didn’t really want to work.
“I had children quite soon, and when they started to go to school, I thought I should do something.”
Lilani, who is an Indian cookery specialist and owner of Spice Magic Ltd, has advised supermarkets, written cookbooks and runs team-building days for major corporations based around Indian food.
“I didn’t know how to cook when I came here (the UK) because in Calcutta, we had a very good cook in our house. But, I learned to cook, and someone was needed then to teach Indian cookery to adults. I said I would do that, and I started teaching cookery to adults once a week.
“And then, I wrote a cookery book, which I really enjoyed doing and I marketed it myself. I learned a lot about how to put something out there and get people to take notice while doing it.
“Then I decided I wanted to do something for women. I was already doing a lot of charity work and I was on different committees during that time.
“When I set up the Women of the Future Awards, I built a network of people I knew in the UK, because when I first came, I knew no one, and I think networks are very important for anyone who wants to get things done. That’s how I started my journey.”
I found that young women have so much talent, as well as energy, and they want to make a difference.