Women in communication: interview with Marianna Verratti from Xaxis
Coming of age is certainly an important milestone, both for a person and for a brand and, in this very particular case, for ours.
As the female turns 18, we have decided to start a Women Empowerment project that focuses on women who work in the field of communication.
Marianna Verratti, Publisher Manager for Xaxis, answered 5 significant questions for us, telling us how she related to the world of work starting from a very small reality.
1. What is "being a woman" like in the world of work?
In the sector in which we work we can consider ourselves lucky women: the pink quotas are high and there are no impediments to the professional and managerial growth of women; however, there are many other work contexts in which being a woman is very penalizing. We are about to celebrate 37 years since the entry into force of the CEDAW (Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women) and there are still many sectors in which women are marginalized, many workplaces where they are not frowned upon and recognized, where we must also be careful about pregnancy and post-maternity return. Even in the newspapers the key words that can be read about these realities are stalking and abuse, so if I have to talk about our situation, I can say that we are lucky women.
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2. What was "women empowerment" for you at 18?
This question makes me smile because I perhaps at 18 did not even know what it was: I come from a very small reality, in which probably still today it would be strange to talk about this term. It is also true that the situation in the South is not comparable to that in the North.
3. Three words you associate today with "women empowerment"
Courage, risk and collaboration. The courage of women is to take risks; risk is a factor that very often those who want to achieve a goal run. In this regard, I can say that women are often more motivated in certain areas than men, above all to win the right to be free and recognized with equity both in the world in general and, in particular, in the world of work. We are lucky women at work speaking in a market that allows us to emerge but there are other places where women pull out their teeth and nails for true freedom, and that is true women empowerment.
4. What would you say to the 18-year-old yourself?
More what would I recommend to me at 18, what would I recommend to the eighteen year olds now, because many things have changed in recent years: 18 years ago there was not even the figure of the digital world, I slowly discovered everything that was and what is become this new reality (which with the passage of time will continue to transform). To me at 18 I would recommend to be more decisive, which is the same thing I would recommend to the current 18 year olds. Understanding who you are, what you like to do, what you are good at, discover your talents and then do everything to be able to achieve your goals. It is important to know yourself and develop a series of attitudes and skills that allow you to train better people. Hard work, open-mindedness, risk, balance, care and many others are intrinsic characteristics in each of us, they just need to be discovered and nurtured. Listen to advice but try not to follow it: try to understand who you really are based on the advice.
5. How much need is there to talk about women empowerment today and what should be done?
Today we certainly need to talk about it because too often we forget the achievements we have achieved. Emma Bonino, who dedicated her life to this, remembered it some time ago in an interview. Talking about it means working on the culture of children, enhancing successful experiences. One project in particular struck me: the Global Girl Alliance, created by Michelle Obama, with the aim of working on the future of women. The first sentence on her site piqued my interest, as it claims that more than 98 million girls are out of school.
Women empowerment seem like two trivial words, but on which attention should always be paid. We need to talk about it everywhere, whether it is about women struggling to take off a burqa or not to be submissive, but also in the world where we work because it is true that we are lucky, but many other women are not and because it is true that we are a people avant-garde, but sometimes we are not towards women.
