Mumbai: Today, women are breaking the glass ceiling in every sector. Beyond all this, there still exists a patriarchal mindset. Not many women are in the C-suite taking important decisions. And, of course, there still exists pay parity.

This Women’s Day, we, at Indiantelevision.com, are acknowledging some women leaders of the media, marketing, and advertising fraternity and also from other professions, who have given more than expected.

Her journey

Born and brought up in Mumbai, I was always a confident, bright and enthusiastic student. I used to actively participate in extracurricular activities while being equally good in academics. As a child, I was always at the centre of things, fairly notorious and rebellious too. It was important for me to voice out my opinion and express my feelings. Probably this is how I was raised to stand up for what you feel is right and share your thoughts and viewpoints without any inhibitions or filters. And honestly, I can’t thank my parents enough for having a gender-neutral environment in the house. Despite having two siblings - a brother and a sister, we never had different house rules for either of us. There were no duties assigned based on our gender, and we all had to learn and do home chores in rotation.

I completed my education from a co-ed school in Mumbai and pursued Junior College in the Science stream. At that time, there wasn’t much awareness about the different career options or even inclination towards any field. I ended up opting for a bachelor’s course in Hotel Management and Catering Technology from a reputed private college in Bandra, Mumbai. And for those who don’t know- Hotel Management is a labour-intensive course where young individuals gather training in core operational areas, like Food and Beverage Production, Service, Front Office, Housekeeping, etc. At that time and even today, it continues to be an expensive course. If I were to share my experience, to be honest, I was not enjoying enough. But owing to my value system and given that I have been a sincere person throughout my life, I gave it my best shot. I secured 1st rank in my college in all the three years, and even stood 2nd in Maharashtra’s merit list for the final year.

Later on, I was selected as a management trainee by one of the leading Indian hotel chains. I was amongst the few students who got a campus placement with a good package because of my academic performance. I continued to put in my best efforts persistently and climbed the success ladder with grit and determination. The hard work eventually bore benefits when I became the youngest bar manager at an international 5 star chain in Mumbai, followed by being the youngest assistant food & beverage manager in another 5 star Indian hotel chain.

I was moving at a steady pace in my career graph and was enjoying my success in food and beverage services which involved working round-the-clock in different shifts and odd hours. Soon, I realized the need to ‘settle’ in life, influenced by the obvious family pressure. Consequently, I got married and moved to Ahmedabad. But this was not it. In order to have further stability in my routine, I switched to Sales & Marketing, perceiving it to be a 9-5 job, just when I was at the peak of my career.

Though there were turbulences in both my personal and professional lives, somehow, I managed to sail through. And I have to say, my family has always been my support system.

When I look at my career trajectory, from a banquet sales manager, to associate director sales, to director sales and marketing and VP sales & marketing today, there has been no looking back. And all this while managing home and a 9-year-old kid is certainly challenging. But I am happy that I have been successful in balancing it all.

My journey is similar to most working women out there, who have to fight to keep up with the traditions of getting married and having a child while at the peak of their careers and still emerging out strong and successful. And most importantly, stay happy and content throughout. All I wish to say is- none of this is as easy as it looks and definitely not possible without a strong, secure and liberal life partner and progressive, selfless and ever-loving parents who believe in you more than you trust yourself. I feel blessed to have them by my side and I owe my success to them.

Her inspiration and inspiring the team

My inspiration has always been the strong women around me. Right from my childhood, I would see my mother who beautifully and effortlessly managed all the household responsibilities. Everything revolved around her and her presence made things so peaceful for all of us.

Additionally, my teachers have been a huge inspiration for me. In school, I would always see them well-dressed with impeccable communication skills. I was so impressed that I would always imitate them and wanted to be like them. They would often share how they would complete their household chores and then rush to school for work. All this sounded like too much responsibility and we would look at them in awe, for managing both personal commitments and work responsibilities with such ease. Little did I know back then, that I would end up following their footsteps.

In school, I believe, all of us have read about Mother Teresa and her selflessness and compassion towards humanity and serving the unprivileged. And on the flip side, we also read and got to know about strong women leaders and entrepreneurs like Indira Gandhi, Sudha Murthy and Indira Nooyi. And then there are young women who have revolutionized and made a strong mark in their respective domains, like Mithali Raj, Sania Mirza, Geeta Phogat and the list is endless.

All of these females have one thing in common- they have fought all challenges to pursue what they wanted to. And they have proved with their stories that success comes with merit, determination and dedication. With these characteristics, you can achieve anything in this world, irrespective of where you come from, what is your gender, caste, creed, financial background, etc.

I believe ‘To be a good leader, one needs to be a good human first’. Growing in the same value system, we form the basis of our work environment which involves compassion, empathy, righteousness, focus, learning, teamwork and growth.

Empowerment of Women

For the longest time, I could not resonate with this term. I would often wonder why there was a need for anyone else to empower us as women. In the environment I was raised in, I always believed that women were stronger, more resilient and more adaptable. Growing up and gaining some exposure to the outer world, opened my eyes and I saw the actual state of girls in rural and semi-urban societies. In these areas, offering education to girls was not a necessity. At a tender age, they were exposed to labour-intensive work and were even forced into child marriages. Sometimes, they had to marry men who were double the girls’ age. I just could not understand the reason why there was so much difference between both the worlds.

I soon realized that the major reason for this disparity was a traditional prejudice - women are supposed to remain indoors and handle the household chores and take care of the family, while men are considered to be the bread earners of the family. This is rather unjust and biased to both genders, as traditionally there are families with 8-10 people with just 1 or 2 men having to take the burden of the welfare and livelihood of the family.

Thanks to urbanization, increased awareness and exposure and migration of people bringing about a paradigm shift in the way we live, work and think. Now, girls and women from rural areas and even tier cities are standing strong with their heads high and receiving the support to fulfill their dreams. Today, they stand with confidence and determination, all set to make a difference.

While most of us speak about these subjects only on special occasions, I am glad there are organizations, world leaders, influential speakers and associations that work for such social causes round the year. They have been instrumental in changing many lives and contributing to a much better place to live in. While I already see men taking equal responsibilities and walking shoulder to shoulder with women, it’s equally our responsibility to engrain these values in the generations to come and not divide chores based on gender.

It is really heartwarming for me when I hear my little one say, “I want to become a successful individual like Mumma and Papa”. For him, we are two individuals living together, sharing responsibilities, working for our livelihood and helping each other during times of need. And I feel this is how it should be - we should be treated like equal people, acknowledged and appreciated for our values and merits, and have similar opportunities to play and perform.

Men and women have beautiful characteristics which make them different from each other. We should celebrate and cherish these differences and have each other’s back to work together as a team and make a magical union.