Dear Practitioner,

The march toward achieving gender equality has been an inspiring one. Women have been relentless in their efforts to shatter the barriers to progress and erase the boundaries set by society on what they can or cannot do. We see women changemakers in not just boardrooms and parliaments but also in everyday life, at work, at home, and in our neighborhoods.

I’m proud of the achievements of women in the project community. Do you know that women occupy 5 out of the 12 board of director positions at PMI (which is close to 50 percent)?

A noteworthy initiative that provides women project managers in this region a platform for knowledge enhancement and networking is the PMI South Asia Woman Engagement Committee (WEC), led by Komal Mathur of PMI Pearl City Chapter. On the occasion of International Women’s Day (IWD) this year, PMI WEC celebrated women’s achievements, while calling for action to accelerate gender parity in the workforce.

I’d like to highlight some achievements and contributions made by our women colleagues in PMI South Asia. We are truly blessed by the large number of women leaders in this region, and the active velocity they help create. At the risk of sounding immodest, I would say that for us in Region 11 (South Asia), women in leadership is a “normal” event on a daily basis

• In 2021, all three winners of the ‘Outstanding Chapter Leadership’ awards were women— Akhila Gowri Shankar, Vidya Chavan, and Suma Murthy.
• Around 22 percent of the current chapter leaders here are women. PMI Pearl City Chapter has the highest number of women volunteers in South Asia.
• Two of our chapters are led by women presidents — Annesha Ahmed (PMI Bangladesh) and Saon Sen Nandi (PMI West Bengal).
• Two of our exciting programs led by women leaders are Project Librarian, led by Akhila Gowri Shankar from PMI Kerala Chapter, to realign our legal documents to PMI’s recent compliance updates, and the Chapter Xchange program, led by Priya Patra from PMI Mumbai Chapter, which is a melting pot for ideas, initiatives, and collaborations across chapters globally (around 25 global chapters are involved in this).

In this special edition to mark IWD, we are featuring a number of inspiring women who are changemakers in their field of work . Also look out for insights from our poll on ‘New Work Ecosystem- Challenges and Opportunities.’

Do not miss our recently released Global Megatrends 2022 report that discusses the six global megatrends and their impact on project professionals and organizations. Do read about the civil, civic, and equality movements trend that is relevant to the theme of this issue.

Nominations are open for the PMI South Asia Awards 2022 to honor excellence in the project management profession. The nominations will be open until 23 May. For details, click here.

Enjoy this special edition.

Happy learning and happy volunteering!

Kind regards,

Dr. Srini Srinivasan
Managing Director
PMI South Asia