The pandemic has set women back two steps, maybe three depending on where they were standing before the outbreak.

But that’s just the way of life, the way of business. There will always be challenges along the path of an entrepreneur. Women are pushed back more often than not, but their circumstances have also encouraged them to push themselves harder. 

Here’s one scenario: Research has shown that women lean towards companies with more flexible, non-traditional office setups, but in recent years, this was nearly improbable. Many businesses considered output to be measurable only by physical attendance; and physical attendance was insurance that employees would work faithfully. 

In 2020, however, with everyone forced to stay indoors, there was no choice but to finally give women, especially women with families, what they’ve always wanted. The catch was a pandemic. Instead of a peaceful afternoon rushing deadlines with coffee on the side, there are kids running around asking for juice every 10 minutes; there’s the incessant need to check the storeroom for a fresh supply of masks, face shields, and cleansers; there’s homeschooling and grocery shopping and the general stress of a deadly disease outdoor. Then there’s another request for more juice. 

But business goes on, especially for women, who have been so acclimatized to gender-based stereotypes that the only path is to soldier on. These types of stories will be discussed in the 2020 SWITCH (Singapore Week of Innovation and TeCHnology) to be held from December 7 to 11. SWITCH is the one-stop platform where innovation meets enterprise; it will feature over 800 speakers in innovation and technology. After a record 60,000+ participants from 140 countries in 2019, this year, it’s making the jump to digital with a purely online event that is expected to broaden its reach. 

On December 10, SWITCH will host a panel called She Means Business: The Future of Women Entrepreneurs, which will discuss how business, despite being led by men, has empowered women to build themselves and their communities. Joining the discussion are Chloe Lim, director of APAC Marketing Group, Facebook; Bedy Yang, managing partner of 500 Startups; and Gina Romero, founder and CEO of Connected Women. Syna Dehnugara, chief brand officer of LetsVenture, will moderate. 

Stories will be shared, hoping to inspire women towards the path of entrepreneurship despite the adversity of their gender and otherwise.

Lim, for example, used to run an online travel agency at a time when the world seemed to be plagued by disasters, natural and man-made. She was born from an underprivileged family, one out of five children of a widow. She didn’t have a passport nor traveled overseas, so she took the road less traveled, joining an internet startup at a time when one still needed to explain what the internet was. 

Romero, on the other hand, was an unremarkable student. She barely made it through high school and she didn’t attend college. Her mother belonged to the first wave of Filipino domestic workers in the U.K., and she witnessed firsthand how the dream of a better life, ironically, ripped families apart. The former flight attendant developed Connected Women to address this issue by offering location-independent work setups and training for women. 

Prior to her role handling international investments in 500 Startups, Yang used to help generate income for women in tribes located in Brazil and Southwest China. She also founded +INNOVATORS, an organization that has become the epicenter and resource for Brazilian tech founders with a network of over 10,000 people. 

These are not survival stories of women joining ranks among men, Rather, these are inspirational journeys of women who created their own ranks, their own platforms, and reached well above what was set for them to achieve. 

No, these women didn’t take steps forward. They took leaps.

Learn more about them and their journeys by registering at SWITCH. Tickets start from SGD 75.

SWITCH is organized by Enterprise Singapore (ESG) and Intellectual Property Intermediary (IPI), supported by National Research Foundation (NRF), and in partnership with SingEx.