It’s a wonder that Joy Pinaroc can work in her morning yoga between being a super-mom and having a killer career – but she does. A mom to 3 little girls, Joy is also the chief financial officer for P&G’s Hair Care, Greater China.

A typical day in Joy’s life sounds packed, but also like the impossible work-life balance dream: after her yoga session and a quick breakfast, the mom to 3 little girls heads to her office in BGC, where she’s the chief financial officer for P&G’s global prestige brands.

It wasn’t always like this, though.

Joy worked her way up the ranks at P&G, starting her career with the company in 2004, working positions that took her between home and Singapore, before getting to where she is today: one among the top female employees in P&G Asia.

Finding her power

Joy has stuck with her company for 16 years – a lifetime for millennials who tend to jump from one job to another – and says it’s partly because they’ve supported her through her “life stages” and through her career growth.

As a single woman, she said, she enjoyed being able to work from home and being able to build her own home office at the company’s expense, a benefit that’s available to all their employees.

When she got married, flexible hours took on a different meaning: more time with – and for – her family. Of course, it also helped that women are granted a hundred days of maternity leave at P&G and that she was able to enjoy well thought-out mothers’ rooms, no matter where her office was in the world.

All of these, she said, aren’t necessarily available everywhere else. “Those [policies], I think you can say, are very important things that help women like me, who are going through life stages, to really strive and succeed in this company,” she said.

The policies may have helped Joy with her work-life balancing act, it was the people she was surrounded by that challenged her and moved her career forward.

“The company really allowed me to move into various roles, roles that I didn’t think that [I’d] be able to play. They bet on me, placed a lot of good career sponsors, placed good mentors, placed me in a community like this – ‘Asia’s Top 100 Women’ –  so that it can allow me to be connected and to have conversations with women.”

‘Sharing the load’

Joy found love at work – literally. She met her husband at P&G, and as they both still work for the company, they usually share lunch or coffee together during the day.

For Joy, a big believer in gender equality, it’s important that they operate as a team – not necessarily at work – but definitely at home.

Now that she’s a one of her company’s top women leaders, Joy was able to speak at P&G’s Women’s Symposium in March, where other executives and invited speakers talk about women’s vulnerabilities in the workplace and what can be done about them moving foward.

There, Joy shared the stage with her husband to talk about “sharing the load,” the challenges they face as a couple with fast-paced careers, their life at home, and how they “really, really make it work.”

The talk hit two birds with one stone for Joy: it allowed her to help other women the way she felt she was back in the day, and it brought men into the conversation of women’s rights.

“Throughout the years, I have seen that the best way to accelerate efforts on women empowerment is to really have women supporting women – and then bringing the men to join as allies too,” she told Rappler in an email, when asked why it was important for her to champion women in the workplace.

“Also, I believe that there are many possibilities that are unlocked through diversity of thoughts, which is only possible when women and men have an equal voice,” she added.

Empowering others

Aside from the support she gets from her company and her loved ones, Joy has stuck with her job because of how she is able to affect change through product campaigns and thorough consumer research.

She mentioned a school program to educate young girls on what to expect during puberty and a program that supports women through vocational training in fields that are usually male-dominated.

But a particular favorite for Joy was Japanese skincare brand SK-II’s “Change Destiny” campaign. Before she was a CFO, Joy was on the team that handled SK-II.

To give us an idea of the “Change Destiny” campaign, Joy spoke about their “marriage market” takeover in China, where you are considered to be a “leftover women” if you are not married by the age of 25. The pressure to get married, Joy said, came from the community, parents, even the ladies themselves.

“The ‘Change Destiny’ campaign, it’s really geared towards single young adults’ right to say I don’t feel the pressure,” Joy explained. “Don’t feel this as the only way for you to be able to go [through with life]. It’s time for you to change your destiny and change your voice, stand up for yourself.”

Another one she loves is Always’ “Like a Girl” campaign, which she says changed public perception, based on the statistics she saw on the positive connotations of the phrase in question.

The campaign would resonate with any woman or anyone who’s had a daughter of their own.

Perhaps the reason it’s so close to Joy’s heart is the 3 little girls waiting for her at home.

At night, he CFO spends dinner with them and helps them with their homework, before ending their day with a prayer before bed. It’s all in a day’s work for Joy Pinaroc. – Rappler.com