Windy Natriavi, founder of WomenWorks, is using her platform to help women reach their peak potential, get career advice and grow their network
After experiencing setbacks in her career because of her gender and seeing it happen to women all around her, Windy Natriavi, the co-founder of fintech startup AwanTunai, wanted to do something about it.
“The trigger that moved me was when my own top manager resigned,” she says. The manager, she adds, was the breadwinner of the family and was experiencing marital problems. In a bid to resolve her issues, the woman tried different arrangements, including “flexible working hours, working remotely and one-on-one heart-to-heart sessions, but [her marital] problems didn't improve, so she resigned”.
After speaking to a peer, Natriavi realised that she could have taken better approaches to support the manager through the situation. “I should've insisted on a sabbatical, for example, so that [her] issues could be resolved thoroughly instead of partially.”
It was this realisation that spurred Natriavi to create WomenWorks, a platform where women can pursue professional and personal development through training and mentoring. “I realised I hadn't been in [my manager's] position before. And like many things in life, the quality of help you can offer is better if you have experienced [a similar situation yourself].” This is why WomenWorks focuses on providing a strong social network that empowers women by matching and connecting them with other users.
Natriavi shares more about WomenWorks and opening up the network to male mentors here.
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How is the woman's career journey unique?
Women have a specific career life cycle. When we're first starting our, we focus on advancing our careers, similar to our male counterparts. But when a woman gets married or has kids, some of us will have to think of other ways to stay financially independent. Some of us may have to take a few years off and plan to enter the workforce later. All of these life stages offer challenges on their own that WomenWorks aims to help solve so that more women have the option to be financially independent.
Can you describe the programmes that WomenWorks have in place to help women achieve greater financial freedom?
WomenWorks aims to build financial independence through equal gender participation in the economy. We boost gender diversity in the workforce by helping women to enter, advance and come back to the workforce through our four primary services: one-on-one mentorship, where our algorithm matches our users with other women who are currently walking or have walked a similar path as them; a recruiting platform through which we aim to connect more than 28 million educated Indonesian women with female-friendly job opportunities; Womenbiz, which is our women-first growth programmes, where we work with companies to create female-friendly environments at work; and Masterclass, which is our virtual webinar series where women can obtain insider and "workable" information from others to [help them achieve] their goals.
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