Zhou Tong knows plenty about challenges in the workplace.
Born blind, she shuttled through many part-time and short-term jobs, unable to find suitable and worthwhile work.
That was before she landed her job at Beijing Prudence Interactive, a 6-year-old startup that designs technology for people who are visually impaired. The company has been using its membership in the UN Global Compact to strive for gender equality in its workforce.
“Even the interview for this job left me feeling good. I was a 29-year-old female but I was not asked whether I was married or had children and, ever since, I don’t feel I have been treated differently because I am a woman,” Zhou said.
“In my previous experience of job searching, I came across a lot of obstacles as a person with disabilities, not to mention that I am a female,” she added.
Zhou started at Beijing Prudence doing social media, then moved to planning and training. Now at age 33, she is Head of New Media Operations.
Participating in the Target Gender Equality Accelerator has helped Beijing Prudence develop an actionable gender equality roadmap, said Wang Lu, its Deputy General Manager.
“The company is still quite young. Although we had our own policies for hiring and managing employees, our work on gender equality and HR management was not so systematic and detailed,” Wang said.
“Joining the UN Global Compact has helped us understand sustainability and follow the Ten Principles which will help us fulfill our environmental and social frameworks provided by the Accelerator to develop a comprehensive action plan to achieve these goals,” she said.
The company relays lessons learned from its UN Global Compact training to its staff and says its next step is using more internal training and awareness raising to reach full 50-50 gender equality. Currently, about 30 per cent of the staff is female.
Assessing and analyzing its performance through the WEPs Gender Gap Analysis Tool, “we learned how to set goals to enhance women’s leadership and use the templates and frameworks provided by the Accelerator to develop a comprehensive action plan to achieve these goals,” said Wang.
The company’s commitment towards achieving gender equality has paid off, said Zhou.
“Working here, I feel women are treated as equals,” she said. “There have been no limits to my personal and professional growth, and I have been encouraged to try new things.”
Leveraging technologies such as the internet, 5G and artificial intelligence, the company creates mobile internet communities, entertainment products and life skills training for people who have little or no vision. Products include a mobile screen reader, an online game called “Battle Against Darkness” that is available through Apple and an online community platform.
Its technology gives people with vision impairment networking opportunities that otherwise tend to be limited, especially for women, Zhou said.
In fact, she said she knows of several examples of people who met on the company’s platforms and went on to get married.
“That is one reason I really like the products we make,” she said.
Beijing Prudence offers a flexible working policy that allows employees to work online. Along with the statutory maternity leave of 128 days and paternity leave of 15 days, it provides 14 days of extra maternity and paternity leave and flexible working hours for female employees during the postnatal period.
“We have a long learning journey ahead of us, but gender equality is important to us,” said Wang.
“Women play an important role in society and women have the same abilities as men. So we aim to give all our employees the same opportunity,” she said.
