Nadine Mustafa For this month of women’s history, I had the opportunity to speak with Alexandra Kinias, founder of the Women of Egypt Initiative. If Vision’s management was a wheel, Alexandra will be the core on which everything spins. She oversees all facets of the platform, from implementing and coordinating women’s strategic plans in Egypt to revolutionizing the activism agenda by concentrating on critical topics, and positive reinvention. We talked about equality in the workplace. If you are a woman in the business industry, the chances are that you have been or are prone to micro-aggression or perhaps even open sexism that has adversely influenced your profession in such an aspect. Alexandra has faced challenges, sits in the c-suite, and empowers all women to speak up and realize their worth.
You’ve founded Women of Egypt – an international platform that supports women, why is it so important for you to run a business that empowers women and calls upon their rights?
Women of Egypt is a volunteer digital initiative that helps bring gender equality and empowerment to women. It is the CRS of Women of Egypt Network — Connecting Egyptian Women Worldwide. Hence the network is the tool that enables the initiative to reach its goal.
Women need to know their rights to be able to ask for and accordingly, work to achieve them. Women empowerment is a whole package; social, economic, education, and political, and they all go hand in hand. Economic empowerment is important for women’s independence. Social empowerment enables them to break the taboos and stereotypes that hinder their growth. Political empowerment is crucial to draft laws that support women and further improve their rights and status. And education enables women to accomplish all that.
Big changes are the culmination of small continuous and persistent efforts. Every stone we remove from their way, and every step they take towards reaching a goal of improving their status is a gain to all women. When women are empowered, we shorten the road to gender equality, which is long and bumpy.
What lessons and experiences can you share as a female leader?
As an advocate for women’s rights and empowerment, working in this field for more than 15 years, I learned that people are eager to change for the better if guided in the right direction. To reach a long-term goal of “empowerment”, one has to be patient and understanding. When advocating, you become a force for change, and people fear change, even those who will benefit from it. Changing mindsets is hard. Advocacy creates adversaries, yet it gets people thinking. And you want them to think. Thinking inevitably brings change, and that’s your goal.
On the other hand, a businessperson has to learn to delegate more, be proactive, and trust their instinct. It’s also important to understand that progress is better than perfection. Perfection is one’s worst enemy. One final thing, I encourage people to learn to know when to let go and try to listen to what that change offers for the ultimate improvement of their lives.
In your opinion, what are the biggest foreseeable challenges for women in business today?
Finding a reliable and dedicated team can be quite challenging. At Women of Egypt, we are lucky to have an amazing team of volunteers operating from around the world. Without their hard work and dedication, we would have never reached where we are today. It is important when you find the right people to help them grow and to improve the working conditions so they would stay. One way to accomplish this is to offer them remote working solutions and flexible hours.
The other big challenge women in business face today is the fierce market competition. The competition is good. It keeps you on your toes so you don’t become complacent, but it can get stressful at times. Women in business need to identify their niche and work harder than their competitors to stand out from the crowd.
What were the critical success factors for you to move up in business?
For Women of Egypt, the critical success factors that helped us grow include filling a void in the media, delivering valuable and credible material, and bringing positive change to the lives of thousands of women.
The culture of the initiative is service-oriented, and we continuously strive to improve and deliver the best quality of what we offer; from designing a graphic, responding to an email, or interviewing a minister. They are all done with diligence and with attention to the details. No matter what level of success we reach, we always ask, how could we have done it better.
I have also identified early on the power of digital advocacy; out of necessity as I live abroad, but I recognized its potential and I built on it. Keeping up with the pace of digital transformation is hard and challenging at times, but it is no longer a choice. Social media is becoming an essential tool in today’s world. Having an early visible social presence helped us build and grow a successful movement.
How do you maintain the balance between your social life, family, and career?
Maintaining a balance is very challenging and I do my best to achieve it. There are times I do better than others. I block time in my calendar for the things that are important to me; watching a movie with my family, going for a hike, reading a book, meeting friends over dinner, or Skyping with my grandchild.
How do you unplug from work?
Because I work from home, schedules and calendars got a little bit messed up after the spread of COVID-19. Being locked at home for a year now, having a home office is a blessing, but also if something needs to be done, I spend long hours working on it or work over the weekend. Hopefully, life will get back to normal soon.
What advice would you give to women who want to be a mentor?
Understand the importance of having a positive impact on someone’s life. Being a mentor is very rewarding. Be patient, be willing to listen attentively, and learn to avoid giving unsolicited advice. Be available when they need you, but don’t overload or suffocate them. Mentoring also requires commitment and dedication. So if you don’t have the time or energy or long-term interest, make your mentee understand that from the beginning. Set boundaries if needed, but once you take on the responsibility, deliver on your promise.
