Pharma Veterans

Beyond the Flowers: What International Women’s Day 2026 Is Really Asking of Us – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1235 Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1235 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans Blogs are published by Asrar Qureshi on its dedicated site https://pharmaveterans.com. Please email to pharmaveterans2017@gmail.com  for publishing your contributions here. Credit: August de Richelieu Credit: Bave Pictures Credit: Viridiana Rivera Preamble International Women’s Day fell on Sunday March 8, as happens annually. This post is dedicated to Women.  Every year on March 8, the world marks International Women’s Day with speeches, social media campaigns, and well-meaning gestures. But behind the celebration lies a more urgent conversation, one that the world’s leading gender experts are demanding we have, honestly and without flinching. The numbers alone make the case. Approximately 130 million girls and young women around the world are currently out of school. More ...

Gender Pay Equity – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1164 Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1164 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma    Veterans Blogs are published by Asrar Qureshi on its dedicated site https://pharmaveterans.com. Please email to pharmaveterans2017@gmail.com  for publishing your contributions here. Credit: Carolina Basi Credit: Hong Son Credit: Mikhail Nilov Credit: Thibault Luycx Credit: Tony Nomjansk Preamble This post is based on various reports on this subject. Closing the 20% Gap: The Urgent Case for Gender Pay Equity Despite decades of advocacy, women around the world still earn, on average, 20 percent less than men for equivalent work. That means women receive only 80 cents for every dollar paid to men—a global wage gap that persists even after accounting for differences in roles, education, or experience. UN Women has intensified its call to close this gap, not merely as a moral imperative but as a vital economic necessity. Why the 20 % Gap S...

Gender Gap in Digital Access – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post 1163 Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post 1163 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma    Veterans Blogs are published by Asrar Qureshi on its dedicated site https://pharmaveterans.com. Please email to pharmaveterans2017@gmail.com  for publishing your contributions here. Credit: Anurag Jamwal Credit: Jhovan Morales Credit: Khezez Credit: RDNE Stock Project Preamble This post is based on Development Aid September report on this subject. Why Access to Technology for Women Must Become a Global Priority In September 2025, DevelopmentAid published a report that laid bare a harsh reality: in many developing countries, women remain far behind men in access to digital technology. They are 19% less likely to use mobile internet than men, and the growth in women working in ICT specialist roles has barely budged; only about 1% increase over a decade. These numbers aren’t just numbers; they represent human lives constrained b...

Understanding and Resolving Gender Pay Gap – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1107 Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1107 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans Blogs are published by Asrar Qureshi on its dedicated site https://pharmaveterans.com. Please email to pharmaveterans2017@gmail.com  for publishing your contributions here. Credit: Ivan Samkov Credit: Ketut Subiyanto Credit: Mehmet Turgut Kirkgoz Preamble Despite decades of progress in gender equality, a significant earnings gap between men and women continues to persist in the workforce. The latest report by the McKinsey Global Institute, ‘Tough Trade-offs: How Time and Career Choices Shape the Gender Pay Gap’, offers a fresh, data-driven perspective on why this disparity endures. By analyzing more than 86,000 real-life career trajectories of U.S. workers, the study presents a compelling case: nearly 80% of the gender pay gap stems from differences in how work experience is accumulated, and the types of career pa...

Broken Rung for Women in the Workplace – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1106 Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1106 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans Blogs are published by Asrar Qureshi on its dedicated site https://pharmaveterans.com. Please email to pharmaveterans2017@gmail.com  for publishing your contributions here. Credit: Antoni Shkraba Studio Credit: RDNE Stock Project Credit: Vlada Karpovich Preamble The journey of professional advancement is rarely linear, especially for women. Despite strides in education and employment, one stubborn barrier continues to hinder women’s rise in the workplace: the broken rung. This metaphorical broken step on the career ladder represents the first critical promotion from entry-level roles to management—and it is where women’s progress often falters. In their insightful book, *The Broken Rung: When the Career Ladder Breaks for Women—and How They Can Succeed in Spite of It*, McKinsey senior partners Kweilin Ellingrud, Larein...

Women in the Workplace 2024 – The 10th Anniversary Report – Barriers and Challenges Persist– Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1011 Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1011 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans Blogs are published by Asrar Qureshi on its dedicated site https://pharmaveterans.com. Please email to aq.pharmaveterans@gmail.com for publishing your contributions here. Credit: Johnniel Danao Credit: Katrin Bolovtsova Credit: Yan Krukau Women in the workplace is the largest study on the state of women in corporate America. The study was launched in 2015 by LeanIn.org and McKinsey & Co.; current report is the 10th anniversary report. [Link to full text at the end]. I had presented the positive developments that had been reported by the study participants. In this part, we look at the barriers and challenges which persist and continue to stall the progress of women in the workplace. Perception vs Reality 9 in 10 senior level men think that women’s opportunities to ad...

Women in the Workplace 2024 – The 10th Anniversary Report – Gender Parity and Equity – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1010 Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1010 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans Blogs are published by Asrar Qureshi on its dedicated site https://pharmaveterans.com. Please email to aq.pharmaveterans@gmail.com for publishing your contributions here. Credit: Edmond Dantès Credit: Jopwell Credit: Ron Lach Preamble Women in the workplace is the largest study on the state of women in corporate America. The findings however can be applied with some variations to other countries. Europe is behind already, and Asian/ African countries are far behind in working towards equal participation of women across the line of command. The study was launched in 2015 by LeanIn.org and McKinsey & Co.; current report is the 10th anniversary report. Over the last 10 years, more than 1,000 companies have participated in the study, and over 480,000 people were surveyed on th...

Education in Pakistan – Part 2 – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #681 Dear Colleagues!  This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #681 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans welcome sharing of knowledge and wisdom by Veterans for the benefit of Community at large. Pharma Veterans Blog is published by Asrar Qureshi on  WordPress, the top blog site. Please email to asrar@asrarqureshi.com for publishing your contributions here. Commitment to Education Programs and their Execution The constitution of Pakistan mandates that “The State shall provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age of five to sixteen years in such manner as may be determined by law”. The federal government never committed to this clause of constitution and with 18th amendment, this responsibility was devolved to the provinces who were neither prepared nor committed to it. Pakistan has also consistently committed to education initiatives launched internationally but has not fulfilled its responsibilities enti...

Women in Workplace 2021 – Part 2 – Pharma Veterans’ Blog Post #546 by Asrar Qureshi Dear Colleagues!  This is Pharma Veterans’ Blog Post #546. Pharma Veterans welcome sharing of knowledge and wisdom by Veterans for the benefit of Community at large. Pharma Veterans Blog is published by Asrar Qureshi on WordPress, the top blog site. Please email to asrar@asrarqureshi.com for publishing your contributions here. Continued from Previous…… McKinsey & Company in collaboration with LeanIn.org has been collecting data and publishing a yearly study on the status of Women in Workplace. The 2021 report is the sixth year’s report which was published few days ago. [Link appears at the end] Profession Biases – Another discrimination that women face everywhere is the profession bias. For example, women are discouraged from working in engineering jobs, even when these may not be hard ones. It is just a bias that has been there all along. While women are preferred in packaging jobs, they are n...