VU launches ‘equality lounge’ to empower women in business
Victoria University Business School will launch Australia’s first Female Quotient Lounge next week at its City Flinders Campus.
Equality Lounges are part of a ‘Female Quotient’ global movement to change workplace culture for women in business. They have become an influential female-led community initiative, activating change at events across industries, universities, and organisations, including the World Economic Forum.
VU’s Female Quotient Lounge will focus on advancing gender equality for women in business, especially those training to use SAP software, a sophisticated Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system.
SAP training is key for many roles in business, as its many applications and services are used by nearly a half a million companies in 180 countries, including nearly all of the Forbes Global 2000 companies.
VU’s Female Quotient Lounge will be open to all students and host several meet-ups and events a year, including visits from female thought-leaders and mentors for female students aspiring to be business leaders.
It will not be a physical space, but a pop-up experience and forum for women to connect, collaborate and activate change to help them advance as business leaders, said Dr Scott Bingley, VU SAP Director, and a Senior Lecturer in Information Systems.
“The aim of the Lounge is to build community among young women while forming a powerful global network of next-generation female leaders,” he said.
“Gender equality is a social and economic imperative – not a female issue. At the current rate of progress, it will take 202 years to close the global gender pay gap. We can’t wait that long,” he said.
Victoria University is an Australian leader in ERP systems and business analytics education. It is one of six academic ambassadors for SAP (representing Asia Pacific Japan as an Academic Competence Centre) and hosts the nation’s first SAP Next-Gen Lab designed to build 21st century digital skills and connect students with industry.
The new Female Quotient Lounge will complement other VU initiatives to promote gender equality and empowerment such as Women in Engineering and Science (WISE) and STEM Sisters.
Victoria University Female Quotient Lounge Launch
When: Tuesday 14 January, 10am-12 noon
Where: Level 9, Victoria University City Flinders Campus, 300 Flinders Street, Melbourne
Keynote Speaker
Ms Peggy Renders, SAP Senior Vice President, Digital Transformation Office, Asia Pacific Japan region.
Professor Marcia Devlin, Victoria University Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor
Ms Kruti Patel, Chief Technology Officer, Sheeba All-Women Rideshare.
All welcome.
