Diversity Woman Magazine

WIN 2016

Leadership and Executive Development for women of all races, cultures and backgrounds

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We Mean Business > d i v e r s i t y w o m a n . c o m W i n t e r 2 0 1 6 D I V E R S I T Y W O M A N 31 American workplaces are often not set up to support religiously observant workers, particularly women. Here are some tips on how to create a more inclusive workplace for women of faith. By Liz Joslin F or Hedieh Fakhriyazdi, faith comes up every day at the ofce. Working as a senior manager in global diversity and social responsibility at Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP, she is re- sponsible for aiding in the recruitment, retention, and advancement of diverse talent. Fakhriyazdi says her work directly connects to her faith. "I feel a tremendous amount of coherence between what I be- lieve as a Bahá'í and as a spiritual being, and what I do day-to-day as a working professional," she says. "My professional work is about building capacity. It's about modestly due to her religious beliefs. She shared that sometimes she felt disrespected by female coworkers because of her attire. She was hurt and noted that it was espe- cially painful because this behavior was coming from women from whom she ex- pected understanding. Because of this woman's story, and oth- ers like it, we wanted to dive deeper into this topic. We wanted to hear from more women in Corporate America about their experiences—and to share their stories with you. Hedieh Fakhriyazdi, Elana Weinstein of Bloomberg LP, and Stephanie Batta- glino of Follow Your Heart LLC spoke with Tanenbaum about their experiences as women of faith in the workplace and what they've seen happen to their colleagues. Tese conversations high- lighted the way that faith and spiritual- ity can positively impact work, but also presented the unique challenges they encounter, such as scheduling and ask- ing for accommodations. THINKSTOCKPHOTOS Women of Faith in the Workplace Take the Lead the betterment of people and the better- ment of organizations and society." Fakhriyazdi is one of three women who shared their experiences on what it means to be a woman of faith in Cor- porate America with the Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understand- ing, and how their gender intersects with religious identity at work. For more than 15 years, the Tanenbaum Center, a nonproft with the mission of com- bating religious prejudice, has worked with corporate clients to help them cre- ate more inclusive work environments for employees of all faiths and of none. Over the years, my colleagues and I at Tanenbaum have heard personal stories from clients and trainees about the spe- cifc challenges that women face around religion in the workplace. For instance, after an introductory train- ing on religious diversity in the workplace, a member of our staf was approached by a participant. She was an observant Chris- tian who covered her hair and dressed

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