WOMEN SPECIAL...Online forum to help working women network

While men in the corporate world have several outlets like a bigger social network or drinking buddies to deal with pressures in personal and professional lives, women often do not find a support group to seek solutions to their problems or enough networking opportunities to excel professionally.
A new online forum seeks to change all that by helping working women to sort out their issues while offering a platform to network.
The venture, www.womenatwork.co.in, is the brainchild of Apurva Purohit, chief executive officer of a large media company who has over two decades experience in the corporate world.
This is a platform where women from all walks of life can come together and optimise their online social networking time to further their professional and personal growth, Purohit said.
“For instance, an employee from one of the big five consulting firms recently got in touch with the forum saying she’d just had a baby and there was a lot of pressure from her in-laws to give up her job. She wasn’t very keen on quitting and sought assistance from the forum members on the possible solutions. The members responded sharing their personal experiences with similar situation and how they tackled it,” said Purohit.
“A lot of women today are grappling with this problem and they go through that guilt trip, feeling it is only happening with them. But when they get to know about how others have dealt with similar issues, they realise the problem is not so grave and that there are ways to solve it.”
The forum members use the platform to connect and explore possible opportunities related to their profession/business, she said.
“One of the things I realised is that women were not networking enough. While multi-tasking with their responsibilities at work and at home, there is no room left for after-office networking. This I believe is actually coming in their way of their further growth,” said Purohit. That was the driving factor behind developing a women-only online forum which would also do on-the ground activities. Its first on-the-ground networking session in Mumbai saw participation from nearly 100 women.
“Operational since last two months, the website boasts of around 500 users from across the globe. In fact, we have started receiving proposals from like-minded women from the US to start an international chapter,” said Purohit.

DNA201219