Season 3 - Special | International Women's Day 2024: #InspireInclusion with Dr. Ramesh Ramachandra

For this International Women’s Day #IWD2024, let’s celebrate together and #InspireInclusion!

We commemorate this very special day with a diverse range of inspiring voices of Changemakers from across the Asia-Pacific region - Amanda Ralph (Australia), Banali Luthra Malhotra (United Arab Emirates), Oanh Kieu Pham (Vietnam), Natasha KK Mak-Levrion (Singapore), Thi Bich Thuy Hoang (Vietnam) - who generously share their perspectives and insights.

Thank you for joining me in this celebration of International Women's Day. Let's continue to #InspireInclusion and work towards a future where every woman and girl has the opportunity to thrive.
 
Here are some questions to ponder on:

1. How can I actively support and recognise the achievements of women in my community?
2. What steps can I take to challenge gender stereotypes and advocate for gender equality in my everyday life?
3. In what ways can I promote a more inclusive environment where all women feel empowered and valued?

To learn more about the entrepreneurial mindset with Dr. Ramesh, get your copy of The Big Jump into Entrepreneurship 2.0 on Amazon.com or www.Dr-Ramesh.com.

If you're interested in building crisis resilience, Dr. Ramesh will be launching her new book on the crisis ready mindset - Make sure you follow Dr. Ramesh on LinkedIn so that you’ll get her new book alert!

Host: Dr. Ramesh Ramachandra, Author, Podcast Host and Founder of Talent Leadership Crucible & Impact Velocity.

Guest Speakers:
(01:27) Ms. Amanda Ralph,  Principal Product Manager at PaperCut Software; Co-Founder of Product Women Melbourne
(03:49) Ms. Banali Luthra Malhotra, Advisory Board at International Women Board of Directors; Advisor - Marketing and Strategy at Network International, United Arab Emirates
(05:11) Ms. Pham Kieu Oanh, Founder & CEO, Center for Social Initiatives Promotion (CSIP), Vietnam
(07:37) Ms. Natasha KK Mak-Levrion, Founder & CEO of PPEARL
(08:35) Associate Professor Hoang Thi Bich Thuy, Hanoi University of Science & Technology (Vietnam)

#InspireInclusion #IWD2024 #InternationalWomen'sDay #EntrepreneurialMindset #Entrepreneurship #Dr.RameshRamachandra #Singapore #Vietnam #AmandaRalph #BanaliLuthraMalhotra #PhamKieuOanh #NatashaKKMak-Levrion #HoangTHiBichThuy #TheBigJumpintoEntr

Thriving in the Age of Disruption with Dr. Ramesh
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Transcript

Dr. Ramesh Ramachandra

Hello, everyone. I'm Dr. Ramesh Ramachandra, and welcome to a special episode of our podcast, Thriving in the Age of Disruption. I'm honoured to be your host and guide in the journey of personal and professional growth. Today, on March 8th worldwide, we are celebrating International Women's Day 2024  under the campaign theme, #Inspire Inclusion.

The many important social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women around the world make this truly a momentous occasion where we get to mark a call to action for accelerating women's inclusion and empowerment. International Women's Day has a rich history spanning well over 100 years.

It began with the first gathering in 1911, supported by more than a million people. Today, International Women's Day belongs to all groups, collectively everywhere, transcending borders and borders. The theme #Inspire Inclusion reminds us that when we inspire others to understand and value women's inclusion, we build a better world together.

It's all about fostering a sense of belonging, relevance, and empowerment for girls and women everywhere. I'm excited to share the unique voices of Changemakers in the Thriving in the Age of Disruption podcast series, who are sharing their unique perspectives. I hope their stories will touch, inspire, and activate you. 

Amanda Ralph

I am mum to two amazing young women who I'm really proud of. They're quite resilient and they both face different challenges with incredible courage. And they're both really compassionate young women. They're caring, kind young women. So I feel like the world is a better place for them being in the world.

I'm really proud of that. Professionally, whilst I love doing product management in the last five to 10 years, I really have taken on a role of mentoring and helping women in particular, younger women in the organizations that I've been in grow and drive their own development and careers.  So it's the impact that you want to leave in the world out there.

Yeah, I love that Madeleine Albright quote, that “There's a special place in hell for women who don't help other women.” And I really try and take that on as a mantra because I feel an obligation to help support, coach, mentor, just be a psychological support, give a psychologically safe space for younger women to have vulnerable conversations about what they're struggling with or where they want a little bit of help.

Guidance or insight, what's your experience been? What have you done? So I think for older women, we need to take that responsibility seriously and try and help lift up those around us and help them progress through their career. I think for younger people who are earlier in their career, try and find your tribe, wherever you are and your tribe might be within your organization or it might be.

Beyond your organization, something like Product Women, where you can come and have those conversations. But within your organization as well, there's bound to be people and not just women, I've had some amazing male mentors who've really helped me in terms of my career decisions, but find those people that you can have those conversations with and be courageous.

And be a little bit more assertive in actually driving those conversations. Don't be afraid to sort of be quite deliberate or specific about the help that you want, or need, or the questions that you have. One of the things that I've been guilty of, and I think women are, Probably more guilty of is they're a little bit hesitant sometimes just to be quite deliberate.

You can do it in a nice way, but in a way that makes it very clear what it is that you're asking for and what it is that you're seeking guidance on. 

Banali Luthra Malhotra

I would encourage women starting up and where they feel that they are ready for something bigger, they should speak up and not wait for it to happen automatically or that their leader should look out for them.

It doesn't happen that way. You have to present yourself. You have to be confident. About what you can bring, even if that's 50 percent of the next job, raise your hand. Very often, most women end up going through this imposter syndrome. Women think they need to know the job before they get into the job. I would say just raise your hand and go for it.

What's the worst that can happen? You can get guidance. You can feel that your resilience to jump back. You can ask for help, but at least help yourself first. You need to have self esteem, confidence. You're not meant to know everything before you do everything. My second organization that I work for, I did face a lot of challenges to come into a multi dimensional, multicultural and very male oriented organization.

Many a times I felt that my voice was never heard. While it was loud, it wasn't heard. But I think I plundered on and delivering and sticking to my point. And then my results started speaking for itself. So I think speaking up is the only way that you can help yourself be confident in what you bring to the table.

Manoeuvering, you're not taking the stress personally. It's all about how you see yourself rather than worry about how everybody else sees you. Every organization can thrive or be successful. Seeing the different and creative dimension that many women bring onto the table. 

Pham Kieu Oanh

Vietnamese women represented it very well in the labor force. They're about 24, 25 percent of the top leader in the corporate sector. Our Vietnamese women are very strong and we have good status in the society. So to become a woman leader is becoming more common now. But it's also Another challenge for the women leader, because we live in the world that may not really aware about the differences and their strength and weakness, the women and men.

So we tend to apply quite a stereotype model of the leader, and they use the same parameter for the women and men. That is dangerous. And I think that as a woman, we have some, Special issues that could affect our life and work. I don't think that we should be the same as a woman and man leader, but it's tough.

It will take time for people to recognize who we are as a woman leader, what we needed, what make us special and what they needed to support us. For example, women tend to have less time for themselves. They have to spend time for work and for family, so they have less time to take care of themselves or to build a stronger network with the college and with others.

I see that the men tend to get together very easily, but as a woman, we have to consider many things before that spend time for the socialization. So that is a one disadvantage, but also the woman tend to be more caring about the people, about the relationship rather than profit only. So people may misunderstanding and think that woman leader may not be ambitious.

As the man and that's why much less investment in women compared with men when they do fundraising. So they don't believe in the leadership and the role plan and risk taking of the women. But that is a very man perspective. That is something we should change. Because nowadays the company can grow by many different ways and not only aggressive growth, but they may have a more sustainable and more balance in between the social or business mission.

So I think the future business woman will play very important role to build a more sustainable economic ends of the world in the future, but it's because it's closer to the nature of the women. 

Natasha KK Mak-Levrion

My mom always had some new business idea, yeah, when I was growing up. I think that probably had a bearing and she was quite influential at home. Instead of talking about the neighbors, we would talk about ideas, the dinner table. 

So what do you do now as a mom about inculcating this entrepreneurial mindset with your two daughters? I try and share what's going on at work with them. And to be honest, I think about this quite a lot. Am I doing enough? Am I doing like what my mom did? I don't think I am. And sometimes I reproach myself, but at the same time, I also have to look at the children. They are built a bit differently from me, I must say. I try and catch what's interesting to them, right? But what's important for them is I always share what's going on at work.

My challenges, my triumphs. And I try to get them to do things like a special project. For example, creating cards with presentation tools and so on. They get to practise this before they get into the workplace.  

Associate Professor Hoang Thi Bich Thuy

Because for Vietnamese, we respect family and we must spend time for family. For example, the children, I cannot spend the whole time on my job and for the women led company is much more, more harder, especially when they are young, they have to cope with how to lead their staff, not only herself, how to work with her staff smoothly. 

And so my job is I help them with teamwork, how to make their company. More stable and make a better team work together in the first stage of the company.One thing I see that an advantage for the women leadership is we have good sensitivity, young, empathize with people, but sometimes it's a disadvantage also. Because you see, we care so much, I think when a woman leader can control how to keep balance, that is good for their business.  

Dr. Ramesh Ramachandra

Thank you for joining me in this celebration of International Women's Day.

Let's take a moment to reflect on the vision of a gender equal world, a world free of bias and discrimination. A world that embraces diversity, equity, and inclusion where differences are not just accepted, but celebrated. Of course, International Women's Day is not just about a single day of celebration.

It's about igniting sustainable, lasting change. It's about inspiring action and fostering a culture of inclusivity every day in every aspect of our lives. Remember, International Women's Day belongs to everyone, everywhere. And each one of us has a role to play in creating a more inclusive world. Finally, I'd like to leave you with three questions to ponder upon.

Ask yourself - One, how can I actively support and recognize the achievements of women in my community? Two, what steps can I take to challenge gender stereotypes and advocate for gender equality in my everyday life?  In what ways can I promote a more inclusive environment where all women feel empowered?

Let's continue to inspire inclusion and work towards a future where every woman and girl has the opportunity to thrive. Thank you for tuning in and until next time, stay inspired and keep spreading positivity.