"To innovate, and to do anything successfully in business, you need to have people of different backgrounds, and people who think differently when they are looking at the same situation you are, with a different set of eyes," explains Shamina Singh, an Executive Director at Mastercard discussing Workplace Diversity at the World Economic Forum, where gender diversity was high on the agenda.

As a leading technology company in the global payments industry, diversity is embedded in Mastercard’s working culture to foster innovation, collaboration and new ideas. The organisation works hard to support women and their career development at every level of the organisation.

Mastercard recognises however, that gender parity is an industry-wide problem on a global scale and has implemented several initiatives to support women and girls achieve their career goals.

Mastercard’s Girls4Tech education programme connects with schools in Europe, Asia Pacific, USA, the Middle East and South America showcasing the importance of STEM subjects and how they can lead to some impressive careers. Mastercard employees serve as mentors to the students and demonstrate how STEM principles are applied to the global payments sector, in exciting areas such as digital convergence and big data. The programme inspires and motivates girls to pursue STEM subjects as well as careers in technology and aims to improve the pipeline of women in these areas.

In October 2015 Mastercard also launched a female mentoring programme in collaboration with three partner universities - Trinity College in Dublin, LSE in London and Bocconi University in Milan. The eight month programme is designed to empower girls through mentorship, build their self-confidence and challenge them to discover and fulfil their potential. Fifteen Mastercard employees are acting as mentors to support the girls and are focused on providing the appropriate advice and support to prepare the students for their future careers. One of the Mastercard mentors, Eva-Maria Baumer, who works in the Strategy and Analysis team in London has found the programme to be hugely rewarding. “Mentoring young and ambitious women has been an amazing experience for me. It is important to provide guidance and inspiration without imposing your own way of thinking. I believe that this helps mentees reach their full potential.”

Hands-on initiatives such as these, delivered on a global scale, demonstrate how committed MasterCard is to driving diversity within its business and the technology sector as a whole. These programmes strongly support this year’s International Women’s Day theme to accelerate the achievement of gender parity and demonstrate the organisation’s commitment to help women and girls achieve their ambitions. MasterCard has much to celebrate in its quest for global gender parity!

Find out more about Mastercard’s Girls4Tech programme or the Female Mentoring Programme - or to learn more about working in Mastercard’s innovative and supportive culture, research their current vacancies.
 

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