The entrepreneur in Angele Giuliano is alive and kicking. The very way she looks at the role of women in the world of work exudes positive energy and a forward-looking attitude. Stating that equality between the sexes has more or less been achieved, she insists on the need for more female participation, which may help the economy grow, thus improving the country’s, as well as Europe’s, competitive edge. Francesca Vella wanted to learn more about the ideas this woman would like to promote.
It has become all too common to associate women’s movements, associations and the like, with the promotion of equality between the sexes and with gender issues.
However, the head of the Foundation for Women Entrepreneurs (Malta), Angele Giuliano, feels that equality and gender issues are precisely not the philosophy that spearheaded the foundation she leads, which has been established as one of Europe’s Women Resource Centres forming part of the W.IN.NET network.
Recently, precisely last month, Ms Giuliano was also appointed on the W.IN.NET board together with seven other women who will be lobbying the network’s principles across Europe.
The network, which is a pan-European organisation running on its own steam, is aimed at establishing stronger inter-regional cooperation to promote the role of women in local and regional development in a way that may improve Europe’s overall competitiveness.
I met Ms Giuliano at the foundation premises in Hamrun, the establishment of which was partly EU-funded about six years ago, after she started taking an active interest in the way the EU works, particularly its various projects and programmes.
“I must say it was a whole new world for me. I had my own business and my area of specialisation was IT. I had no idea about the EU or the way it functions.”
Starting off as an IT research projects evaluator with the European Commission way back in 2000, travelling to and from Brussels, seeing the money that the EU provided, sometimes to the tune of tens of thousands, even millions of euros, Ms Giuliano says that she used to wonder why the Maltese did not really apply for EU-funding at the time.
Wanting to explore the possibility, she decided to give it a try by applying to participate in projects on behalf of the company she owns.
She confessed this was not such an easy task initially, but then success came and the success was, often enough, quite substantial too.
This was clearly encouraging and Ms Giuliano decided to speak to her colleagues at the foundation about the possibilities of applying for participation in certain EU projects, something which they did and it seems to have been a success story ever since.
Possibly, the question of many is, but is it that easy? As Ms Giuliano herself told me, starting off is never easy, but her attitude is definitely convincing. Rather than brooding over women’s problems for example, she drives straight to the area that may provide solutions.
“I believe that it’s useless saying: ‘Oh, we’re women and there are certain problems…’ No. We are women and there are possibilities worth exploring. Our participation may help the economy to grow and enhance our quality of life. Yes we’re women and there are certain possibilities, let’s explore them together. Let’s get down to them together.”
Such a strong drive, so much determination and a strong sense of passion – it makes one completely forget about the gender issues women normally are stuck upon.
Europe needs to move forward and become more competitive, but how can this be done if the contribution from the female population in Europe is still relatively minor?
Bearing this in mind, Ms Giuliano departs from the objective that women need to contribute more. In a few European countries women are at par with men, but this is not the case in most of the EU member states.
It is an issue that needs to be addressed, particularly because often enough the problem lies in areas such as business, technology and other areas that in the minds of many are still domains that women keep out of, possibly because the general mentality is that it is a male-dominated world.
Replying to a question regarding the slow growth in numbers of female IT graduates in Malta, Ms Giuliano explains that while she cannot pinpoint a specific reason behind this factor, women need to be encouraged not to be scared to enter such supposedly male-dominated worlds.
“While I believe that often enough the problems simply lie in our heads, there may be real problems that might need to be addressed. I can never lay too much stress on the importance of a strong support network,” says Ms Giuliano, explaining that the European network she forms part of tries to address issues that may not necessarily be the same for each region.
Explaining further, Ms Giuliano goes into the plan for the W.IN.NET network. While Maltese women, for example, may so far still benefit from a strong natural support arm, that is their parents, this may not be the case in other European countries and the solutions that may need to be sought will most probably be different.
She told me this was precisely the aim of the network and this was the reason behind the fact that the network’s board members have already been working closely with Viviane Reding, Luxembourgish EU Commissioner for Information Society and Media, and they have also started collaborating with the Polish EU Commissioner for Regional Policy, Danuta Hübner, who, they hope will be able to provide them with the same support.
In fact, the network is planning a pan-European conference on the impact of women in the region to help competitiveness. This large conference is expected to take place in Warsaw on 28 September.
Discussion at EU level regarding different solutions for the various regions will be fervent. Ms Giuliano and the other seven board members hailing from both southern and northern European countries will attempt to promote tangible projects depending on each region’s own workable solutions.
“Thinking of an example spontaneously, in Malta for instance, we might need to put forward the idea of more flexible hours to try overcoming the issue regarding family commitments,” she explains, adding that by means of the support the network will be getting from the EU and possibly even financial assistance, pilot projects might be able to be conducted in order to prove that certain things can work out.
The talk moves on to child care centres and while Ms Giuliano explains that there are many good centres in Malta nowadays, there are still not enough. Think about Valletta for example, she will tell you, there are so many people who work there, but is there a child care centre? This could be an idea for a private company, she explains.
“Why would nobody have thought about the possibility, when there is so much to gain? We cannot always expect the government to do all the work. The implementation of certain policies put forward by the government often need to be pushed by the private sector and this is where the idea of entrepreneurship comes in.”
There may be many women who might have a lot of potential, women who specialised in technology for example, others who may have many ideas too. “We want to look for those women and help them achieve their goals.
We want to push women in technology, also up to a level whereby they may want to specialise abroad; we want to help the mobility of women researchers, help cooperation between women technology engineers across Europe…”
By means of W.IN.NET, proposals may be put forward at EU level. The local foundation will then be publishing a number of guidelines and proposals discussed within the network and with representatives from EU institutions, in a way that the foundation may carry out consultation with a number of entities and even the government.
Ms Giuliano explains that her involvement in Europe has not only taught her a lot and given her much experience, but it is also a great opportunity to meet many people and talk about common issues.
“It helps to know that you are not alone, to know that someone living in some province in Europe might be experiencing similar obstacles. Sharing experiences makes solution-seeking much easier and the European network provides for such sharing,” she smiles.
Rightly so, I say to myself, this woman seems to have come a long way and undoubtedly provides a model for many other women who may want to contribute to this success that is Europe.
This European family is celebrating half a centenary of unity in diversity this year, which also happens to be the year dedicated to equality between men and women, so some positive discrimination in this regard, particularly when it is expressed by someone such as Angele Giuliano, is undoubtedly encouraging and even motivating.
Angele Giuliano is Maltese women’s voice in Europe
Ms Giuliano is one of eight board members voicing the needs of women entrepreneurs in Europe, making sure that knowledge, research, innovation and equality between the sexes are the principles that guide our actions and hopefully our society. W.IN.NET is quite a focused type of group, with an element of proaction, since one of its main issues is women in technology. Although equality between the sexes is one of the principles it would like to promote, it focuses more on technology and entrepreneurship.
While Ms Giuliano’s representation at such a high level on the network undoubtedly puts Malta on the map of action for a better Europe, she would like to look for the hidden potential in women who may not be giving their full contribution for a number of reasons – family commitments possibly being one of the main issues.
By means of the NGO she heads, the Foundation for Women Entrepreneurs, as well as the W.IN.NET network, Ms Giuliano would like to support the empowerment of women and social inclusion.
The network intends to continue providing stability to resource centres at European level in a way that may improve the efficiency of technical cooperation with the European institutions.
The local foundation, housed at the Gateway Centre in Parish Priest Mifsud Street in Hamrun, is a mine of information where anyone, both men and women, may seek help regarding EU projects and the possibilities of participation.
Like Ms Giuliano and her team, anyone may seek to provide a better contribution in Europe, enhancing one’s potential, obtaining immense experience and being rewarded in the process.
The foundation participates in various projects that may prove to be beneficial and of interest to many.
Further information on the foundation may be obtained by visiting www.women.org.mt or by sending an e-mail to [email protected].