Remarks

Speech by Chargé d’Affaires, a.i. Judith A. Chammas at Women Architects, Engineers & Planners of Bangladesh Association Launching Ceremony

Dhaka

July 28, 2005

I would like to congratulate Lailun Ekram and her colleagues for establishing the Women Architects, Engineers and Planners of Bangladesh Association.  Thank you for inviting me to the Launching Ceremony.  I am proud to be a part of this important moment in the history of Bangladeshi women professionals.  This is an exciting new step for women entrepreneurs in Bangladesh, especially professional women engaged in architectural and engineering fields.   Organizations and associations like this will go a long way in bringing attention to issues affecting professional women in the workplace.  This, in turn, will increase public awareness to problems that affects all Bangladeshi women from all walks of life.  If WAEPA can reach their objectives - any of their objectives – to further gender equality in the workplace, it will help women in all sectors of the Bangladeshi workforce. 

As I have said on numerous occasions, human capital is Bangladesh’s greatest asset.  More importantly, women workers are the backbone of many industries in this country.  The textile industry alone employs more than 2 million women.  An association that addresses women’s rights in the workplace will go a long way in improving the working conditions of millions of women in Bangladesh.  Any success that your association achieves will be a significant step towards advancement of professional women in Bangladesh. 

I entered the U.S. employment market in the early days of the women’s rights struggle.  In the 1970’s women’s rights was a hot topic – many organizations were formed during that era that started the public dialogue on women’s rights in the United States.  Many of these organizations focused on gender inequality in the workplace.  As a result of their hard work, today we have women professionals thriving and succeeding in the professional environment – an area that was earlier seen as “a Man’s World”.  Many of our leaders today, in the public and private sector are women.  Today, several Fortune 500 companies have women CEOs, Martha Stewart and Oprah Winfrey have created business empires around their names.  Women are now in every arena of the business world.  Since the 1970s, the United States has had numerous Senators, Representatives, State governors, cabinet secretaries and even Supreme Court Justices.  Dr. Condoleeza Rice, our Secretary of State, is just one example of a new generation of successful women leaders.    

Women in the United States have come a long way since the 1960s and 1970s, but we have definitely not forgotten what we came from.  Many of us, even in government faced gender inequality in the workplace.  So we know what you are going through.  We remember how hard it was.  Women were passed over in hiring in favor of men.  When women were hired, they were hired at a lower salary.  They were promoted more slowly, if at all.  Even in the Foreign Service, practices towards women were archaic and chauvinistic.  Women, who served in Embassies, either as officers or as staff members, had to resign from the Service if they married, as recently as the early 1970’s.  In the mid-1980’s, less than 20 years ago, women participated in a lawsuit against the Department of State, for discrimination against women.

Thanks to the struggle of organizations that took on the challenges of gender inequality, we now work in much better conditions with more equality and respect in the workplace.  Bangladesh is poised for a movement towards a work environment that is conducive to women professionals.  I congratulate you in taking the initiative and the first step to do something about it.  By creating such an organization of professionals, you have created a forum where professional women can discuss their problems, come up with collaborative strategies to tackling them and then combining your voices to bring these issues to the broader audience. 

You now have an opportunity to band together as women with common interests, common professions and common challenges.  You can unite your efforts to make sure that your voices – the voices of young, vibrant, professional women – are heard in the Bangladeshi business environment.  And soon you will be able to ensure that the Bangladeshi workplace in no longer just “a man’s world” but a world where the creative talents of men are women are equally valued.

 

Note:  A Bangla translation of this article is also available from the American Center.  If you are interested in the translation, please call the American Center Press Section (Tel: 8813440-4, Fax: 9881677; e-mail: DhakaPA@state.gov; Website: dhaka.usembassy.gov