WILLEMSTAD - The 19th Annual Female Leadership Conference that took place last weekend in Curaçao with the topic 'About Women and Gender Identity' was again a success. The topic of the conference was inspired by the research of Dr. Thomas Köllen and peers on Sexual Orientation and Transgender Issues in Organizations Global Perspectives on LGBT Workforce Diversity. The conference started with an invocation by Victoria Wild.
Official opening of the Conference was by consul general of the United States of America in Curaçao Margie Bond who focused on the history of equality of women leaving the audience to think about knowing that as a woman you are 100 per cent ready, you deserve a seat at the table and to be your authentic self.
Initiator and organizer of the Conferences Reyna Joe expressed her gratitude to all who made it possible for the conference to continue.
The focus stays on women who made an effort to study and have a career and to have them empowered enough to be satisfied, supported as valuable members of their communities.
This year's topic was scientifically introduced by Gina Marcano who has a Master of Arts in Political Science and who is a lecturer at the University of Curaçao for the Faculty of Social and Behavioral Sciences teaching "Introduction to Social Work", "Human Behavior and Social Environment", and "Desk research in the Social Sciences".
Her introduction showed how people look at gender and that the way that modern communities look at gender is very European influenced.
The next speaker was transman Roderick who gave a clear view on how his life is because of him changing his gender.
'I knew from small that I am a man', he said and his presentation was for many emotional to see what can be going on in the life of a person like him: a self made man.
HR professional Judith Brekelmans spoke about diversity @ inclusion, from the perspective of HR. Specifically work forces are going through changes since it is not possible anymore to act as if nothing is happening, different genders must be identified and included.
The participants had many questions and everyone agreed that much information is needed to reach the inclusion that will finally benefit all.
The conference also had an interesting session with book publisher Sierra Melcher of Red Thread Publishing, who gave information about the challenge to publish your story and share your experiences with the world.
The intention also of the conference is to have more women writing their stories and publishing them.
Master of Ceremony Nelly Rosa did an excellent job just like Jason Rafaël who was in charge of the technical part.
Initiator and organizer Reyna Joe is grateful for the result of this conference where for the 19th times it was possible to create an empowering event for great women and those who support them.
More detailed information will be on the facebook page: About Female Leadership.