KAMPALA – Ms Sheena Ruparelia, the Managing Director Speke Group Hotels has tipped women on how to compete with their male counterparts and bring transformative change within the communities they live in.
Ms Ruparelia was speaking during an online talk show themed ‘Enhancing Women Capabilities towards development in Uganda’ that was held at Victoria University Kampala and was streaming live on the University’s Facebook page.
According to Sheena, a woman needs to be looked at as equal to any member of society, and they should be willing and available to do any role that they feel they want to be doing.
“We have been having a very nice conversation on what we can do as women and how Uganda has changed in regards to how women are viewed in society. Today’s point is that a woman can get involved in as much as she feels to. If you look at society today, there are a number of women in key roles and they have actually done much more than their male counterparts,” she said.
Sheena added that ladies need to learn to be confident and society has to treat them in an equal way since if they have the confidence and willingness they can be treated with respect and told the importance of education.
The youthful entrepreneur notes that culture needs to move forward in thinking and understanding one another and it doesn’t necessarily have to be the male gender to push for the female.
“We have to understand that things have changed today as men do not need to put women in brackets anymore. Men don’t need to be the breadwinners, they need to work together with women to achieve what they can achieve, and there is no need to separate the two. Society has to understand that each person, race or gender must be equal and be given equal opportunities,” she explained.
According to her, the struggle is long, it is hard but possible and all women must unite, work together and support one another willing to learn every single day.
“It is up to us to change society and no one is going to do this for us. Togetherness, education, willingness, open-mindedness and target orientated makes it all possible and I think we can all do it. There is a big challenge in equality generally, in race and we need to take action on this to streamline this.”
The talk show also featured Uganda Law Society President-elect Phiona Nabasa Wall, Katusabe Ssemwezi the Academic Registrar Victoria University.
Other discussants included Karitas Karisimbi, a media personality and Malaa Kivila Odera the Founder & C.E.O Sylmax Consult.
