Against All Odds: Karma Ekmekji, Founder, #Diplowomen The Beirut-based founder of #Diplowomen Karma Ekmekji on how women can advance themselves in a world where most careers are male-dominated.

Staged in partnership with du, Against All Odds is an BIZ Experiences Middle East Live webinar series that features enterprising women who have risen above personal and professional challenges to develop solutions, launch businesses, and lead global initiatives that make them inspirational role models around the world.

In this edition of Against All Odds, we speak with Karma Ekmekji, the Beirut-based founder of #Diplowomen, co-founder of 3QA, and a consultant with UN Women, who has been advocating that women should play a greater role in peacebuilding around the world, and especially in the Middle Eastern countries. In a freewheeling conversation with BIZ Experiences Middle East Managing Editor Tamara Pupic, Ekmekji shared her thoughts on how women can advance themselves in a world where most careers are male-dominated.

"My advice for women in general, but especially those who want to work in peacebuilding and international affairs, is that you really have to be cool-headed," Ekmekji said. "Being impulsive doesn't get us very far in any patriarchal context or system. Everything around us is designed to provoke us. If we are firm, it means that we are angry; if we are blunt, we are hormonal; and so on. It's designed for us to feel bad about ourselves. Here, I want to highlight and underscore the role of men in advancing women, because I don't live in an illusion that we are going to make it on our own. I believe in partnerships between men and women. We need more 'he for she-s' in the world, and that's for the sake of the 'he-s'."

Related: Against All Odds: Radhika Gupta, CEO, Edelweiss AMC