From Opposite Ends of the Earth, the Same Story: Women Push for Positive Change

When Yoo-Kyung (Karen) Choi was in the first grade in her native South Korea, she was nominated as a candidate for class president along with one of her friends, a little boy. As part of the process, each child had to give a speech to their classmates.

Karen recalled how nervous she was as she prepared to speak. And then their teacher pre-empted her by telling the class, “It’s always good to have a boy as the leader. And Karen here will play an amazing supporting role as vice president.”

She lost by a handful of votes. When she went home from school that day, she told her mother what had happened. And her mother responded: “You know, that’s why you have to always be better.”

Today, those words of advice still resonate with Karen, who is Viatris’ Head of Compliance for Japan, Australia, New Zealand and South Korea. And they remind her of how many women have had to become overachievers just to secure their place in the world.

Speaking at an event hosted by EmpoWer, the company’s employee resource group (ERG) for women and their allies, Karen was part of a discussion about the experiences she has had working around the world, including the U.S., Canada, Australia, Cambodia and Japan.

“It did really affect me a lot in my way of working and my way of study,” she recalled of the school election. Nowadays, a teacher would never say such a thing in the classroom, and she welcomes the change.

Kristen Beatty, who is based in the U.S. and is the Head of IT for Corporate Functions, moderated the event. She noted that she had the same kinds of conversations with her parents growing up, and their response was the same: push yourself to be even better.

“So here we are, on the opposite sides of the world and hearing that same story,” she said.

Rania Gabr, Head of Marketing and Business Excellence for Japan, Australia, New Zealand and Emerging Markets, grew up in Egypt in a family that supported her efforts to succeed. A pharmacist by profession, she joined Viatris 20 years ago as a medical representative for a legacy company.

She recalled how she won a role in another country, but when she revealed that her husband – who supported her plan – was going to remain in Egypt while she traveled, the hiring manager at the legacy company decided on her behalf that she should stay with her family. Though it was a difficult lesson, Rania said it helped her to build resilience and inspired her to work even harder to prove herself.

“Since then, I’ve been traveling all over the globe, working across multiple countries and geographies,” she said. “So it was a good learning for me.”

In many situations, Rania has been the only woman in the room. “At that point, you can imagine it’s very hard to negotiate,” she said. “It’s not as easy as it should be when you have (a more) diverse setup.”

But she said the hard work that so many women and allies have invested is paying dividends.

“It’s taking a lot of power from our end, and energy, to assure that we are able to prove that a female is capable to do the work,” she said.

Karen agreed.

“I don’t think there’s any country, any culture where we can say it’s perfect in terms of women’s equity or empowerment,” she said. But she added that even if transformation is slow, changes are still happening: “And those small steps we take, they do contribute to those positive changes.”

Rania urged the women participating in the forum to clearly define their career goals and stay focused on them.

“Learn, grow, define your goal and work towards it,” she said. “Don’t let anyone deviate you from your career goal, and make sure you’re able to do it because you are capable of achieving more.”