After spending 20+ years as an HR Leader, Tanuja was aware that women participation in the workforce was not moving upwards for over a decade (in fact, they were moving in the wrong direction).
While researchers and experts blame it on employ ability, marriage, their “inborn” responsibilities as a caregiver, mandatory career breaks for raising kids, corporates not making enough efforts etc., Tanuja believes the problem is more profound than it seems.
Academically, girls outperform boys in practically every subject and course you look at. So then, why does this number doesn't reflect at the workplace?
“The flaw is in the way we bring up our girls. We train them to be perfect to be good girls, but perfection is not a human quality” “Tanuja believes” Unlike our boys, we do not teach our girls to experiment, take risks and follow their gut we do not teach them that it's okay to make mistakes and fail. As a result, they are more likely to give up a career than their male counterpart” she adds.
Women are not good at math tech is not their game women are bad drivers, the kitchen is where they belong, dark women will find it challenging to meet a suitable match the list is endless. Society feeds in what a woman can and cannot do.
Picture this familiar household scene, where a teen age girl is expected to assist the mother in the kitchen and the family celebrates her perfectly “golroti” or mocks her for making “India ka naksha”. However, she is hardly appreciated for her academic achievements or for creating an offbeat career choice.
Tanuja founded Beyond Pinks in 2018, with the mission to rewire the life philosophy of girls and young women before it has an adverse impact on their lives, career, family and society in general.
“I couldn't have waited for them to learn it the hard way, like most of the successful women from my generation, did” the founder expressed.
This Niti Aayog backed startup works towards removing systematic barriers faced by women to create a gender inclusive workplace and society. Beyond Pinks trains young girls and women to adapt to changing circumstances which helps them stay longer in the workforce. Using the design thinking methodology, we coach them to structure their problems, look at their challenges from
The team at Beyond Pinks achieves this mission every day as they train young girls from college who are stepping into the workforce, working women facing midcareer crisis and ladies who want to return to work after a break. To complete the loop, team Beyond Pinks connect women talent with jobs, community, mentoring, and reskilling opportunities to help them advance in their professions.
“We had seen far too many women's organizations, groups, and networking meet ups. But we knew they didn't go deep enough to solve the problem they were just treating the symptoms. Beyond Pinks needed to engage the corporate leaders, female entrepreneurs, community leaders and associations to mentor women through their way” Tanuja recalls.
Tanuja realized that women need a trusted circle to find everything they need (except shopping) in one place career advice, mentorship training, job and placement assistance, and even legal aid.
The organisation provides women with probono legal support and awar eness of women related laws through its initiative Beyond Legal.
In 2020, Beyond Pinks launched its flagship Mentorship Programme. The women mentees come from all walks of life, and mentors are picked carefully from different sectors, who bring in the expertise of their area. These mentors give one hour free on the platform every month. In addition, the mentee gets a very private, confidential conversation through a masked number.
We enable women to prioritize empathy over judgement, appreciation over criticism, cooperation over competition. this not only helps them win support at home but also at work. That is the foundation of a long, sustained and successful career (and life),
In a short period, Beyond Pink has built a significant name for itself and spread its footprints across the nation. To date, the company has run over 1600 hours of mentoring through the platform and has over 125+ mentors onboarded.
“We enable women to prioritize empathy over judgement, appreciation over criticism, cooperation over competition. This not only helps them win support at home but also at work. That is the foundation of a long, sustained and successful career (and life), said “Tanuja Abburi.
Through their Design Thinking methodology, they train them to structure their problems, look at them with a fresh perspective and find creative ways to solve them.
The secret sauce is Train them to navigate a situation and overcome the issues on their own and solve them independently”Tanuja explained.
In a nutshell, Beyond Pinks is enabling women to unlock their potential and to make their life choices by simply changing how they approach their personal, professional or social challenges. The aim is to impact one women at a time.