Female Forward International
Eva Diaz: Women Make the World Go Round
The #FemaleForward online campaign highlights women’s achievements that show how businesses and communities thrive when women take on bigger roles. One of our ambassadors is Eva Díaz from Spain.
Trained in Mechanical Engineering and with more than 20 years of experience in senior management, Eva is currently the CEO of Appogeo Digital, a Spanish Capital Company that develops mobility solutions. Born in 1962, she completed her gender identity transition process in 2015, being able to maintain her professional and personal activities during this process and becoming a role model for a new type of leadership. As a member of Ciudadanos, Spain’s liberal party and REDI, Network of Companies for Diversity and Equality, Eva actively promotes diversity, female empowerment and entrepreneurship as well as gender equality. Particularly the gender pay gap, which is still existent in almost all European countries, worries her:
“Spain is moving forward, but not in a structured way and without addressing the root causes of the problem.”
Spain has a modern legislation, but lacks a targeted strategy to overcome latent prejudices, customs and cultural traditions deeply rooted in society. Too often feminism is misused for political campaigning, although it is high time for taking real action: The rapid and highly complex digital transformation calls for a new, more feminine kind of leadership. Eva believes that “the integrative vision that women have through education and the ability to listen and generate networks” aligns with the digitally connected world. Digital strategy is equivalent to a collaboration and networks strategy to make successful decisions, it is essential take all players into consideration, the customer, the experts, and the environment. This must not be a uniquely feminine trait, but good leaders surely are both: willing to listen and ready to take well thought out steps and decisive action at the same time.
The basis for change is education. Knowledge is the key to self-determination and empowerment. Freedom one can say, comes about after a long and often not uncomplicated process of character formation.
“I believe that the woman that I am now is the combination of my professional experience, my personal gender transition process and an education based on personal effort and the struggle to achieve my goals”
says Eva. “My education taught me to get the most out of myself that I could become regardless of the barriers, my transition process has shown me that dreams are possible and above all it has taught me to commit to others and my profession has given me the ability to see the future with perspective and to meet and learn from great professionals.” Besides education, communication, like the FNF FemaleForward campaign, are of utter importance, according to Eva: “Making visible those women in main roles in their professional areas is absolutely basic to promote, in our young girls, the idea that, as a woman, they can get any dream they wish. To believe in yourself is key”.