Over the years women have successfully grappled the shackles of exhaustion, bias against them, conventional roles entrusted to them to emerge as successful leaders, entrepreneurs, corporates in a wide sphere of activities. Nevertheless, there are still very few women in higher positions taking on board the unwinding years of painstaking progress toward gender diversity. Based on our entrepreneurial skills, being a mother, daughter, housewife, sister, we are called upon every day, to manage in an exemplary manner. These skills keep us well on our toes and exhibit good managerial talents and abilities.

My motto has always been to ‘Believe in yourself’ and be self-confident. Be always focused and adopt a positive attitude as there are things which are indeed beyond our control, and we will not be able to change. The road to success is stumbling but one should never give up and embrace life as it comes.

Organisations which give due recognition to women and empower them to shoulder higher responsibilities outshine others and differentiate themselves from the crowd. The EDB has already laid down the foundation for women to aspire to higher positions and values talent, hard work, dedication and trust them. I encourage you all to tread on the path that the EDB has already paved for you.

Mrs Premila Patten

It is a great honor for our country for having Mrs Premila Patten appointed by the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres as the Officer-in-Charge of UN Women, effective as from 18th August 2021. Mrs Patten has a rich experience in the field of gender equality and women’s empowerment and she has been a member of several high-level panels and projects, including the High-Level Advisory Group for the “Global study on the implementation of UN Security Council resolution 1325 (2000) on women, peace and security”, and the Advisory Panel for the African Women’s Rights Observatory (AWRO) within the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA).