Being your own superhero

I have been asked a number of times in the last few months as to why am I ‘wasting’ my time on gender parity. The reasons range from “every gender in society has a role and you cant upset it”, “this is what DNA dictates”, “you cant change anything alone”, “you should focus on your work and marriage rather than go about enticing people”. On reflection, lot of it stems from mental barriers in our head on what we believe is possible or not. Whether it is Jackie Cochran, first woman to break the sound barrier or Svetlana Savitskaya, first woman to space walk, or Katharine Graham, the first female Fortune 500 CEO.

Before she came even close to achieving the feat, she had to believe she could do it, against what was commonplace in society. Faith in mind over body is something we have embraced in career coaching, board rooms and sports commercials for decades. One of the earliest Self Help books by Samuel Smiles which talks of the story of a first-time horseback rider who sees another rider leap gracefully over a high fence and decides he wants to do the same. The underlying thought being “any (wo)man can do what any other (wo)man has done”. After two failures, the new rider makes it over the tall fence. If you believe in it, you can achieve it.

There is a plethora of maxims we all heard growing up “Nothing is impossible, the word itself says I’m possible”. “it always feels impossible until its done”, “Everything is possible, the impossible just takes longer”, “the only way to achieve the impossible is to believe it is possible”. This is what gives power to my strong belief about the role women leaders can play in our society for a sustainable future. I believe it can be done. I urge you to be the ‘believers’ within your communities and women networks and push eachother to believe in the impossible. Be the first in your networks to push beyond glass ceiling in our professions, be the first to speak up for gender parity, be the first to mentor younger women, be the first to send your daughter to study science and technology, the opportunities are limitless. Your actions can fire the imagination of women (and men!) around you…and make the impossible possible, slowly but surely!