Globetrotting to near and far flung places as part of your job would be many people’s idea of a dream career. Images of excitement and glamour may emerge. And the reality of living out of a suitcase far from partner and family takes a back seat.
If the globe trotter were a global head of HR in a series of large companies, you might then get a picture of status, influence and a huge salary. What more could a woman want in her career?
But what if you love your career but begin yearning for something deeper? What if you felt trapped by constraints and procedures that prevent you from making a real difference?
How many doctors do you know, have left the profession to set up a business creating comics? Sounds crazy? With its high status and salary, the glowing reputation and admiration that doctors attract, especially in the Far East, you’d be forgiven for thinking that those would be enough to keep a young woman within the profession.
But what if she had a passion for comics and a flair for creating comic art that had been carefully honed since she was a toddler? And what if once qualified in medicine, she lost sight of her true self?
Have you ever been rewarded for a big achievement? And whilst listening to the accolades you heard a whisper in your ear saying ‘fraud’?
Behold, the impostor syndrome, the worry that you’re a sham and one day soon you’ll be found out.
Regardless of who you are, the impostor syndrome can sneak up on you. And it’s common amongst high achieving women such as Sheryl Sandberg and Emma Watson. My Page 1 Woman has it too.
Meet Sheree Axon, Director of Organisational Change and Programme Delivery, in NHS England, and a longstanding member of the impostor syndrome club. She’s clearly very smart. So how come she often feels a fraud?
Sixty-six percent of Britons support gender equality, but only seven percent call themselves feminists. When feminists are stereotyped as man-hating, bra-burning, angry, hairy and dull it’s hardly surprising that so many people shy away from identifying as feminists. So, what’s the relevance to my Page 1 Woman? She’s a big supporter of gender equality and her business is about women’s empowerment but.... ‘I don’t call myself a feminist although I whole heartedly believe in equality,’ she said. ‘I just don’t do name tags’.
Think of a banker. Who comes to mind? A high earning, pale male in a dark suit, motivated by greed? What if I were to show you a banker who is neither pale, male nor driven by greed? What if she were an African Caribbean grandmother, striving to make a difference, give back, help other women to succeed and do the best for her sons? Would that surprise you?
Talk to any teenage mum about her experience and she might share the verbal abuse from random strangers and the stigma she has faced.
Expectations of teenage mums are low. And few expect a 15 year old mum and her child to buck the stereotypes and make a great success of their lives.
My Page 1 Woman has proven that stereotypes are nothing more than that.
And they will narrow your prospects and that of your children, only if you allow them to.
When you hear the word ‘naked’, what image comes to mind? Probably, one that you wouldn’t associate with phenomenal, inspirational Page 1 Women.
But for once, go ahead and associate ‘naked’ with Mel White, my October Page 1 Woman, because she’s the founder and director of that eponymous business.
By now you’ll get that ‘naked’ is not what you might think at first. It’s not about birthday suits or naturists or embarrassment. It’s about women standing tall, confident and self-accepting,
In part 1, we learned that, Mel White, founder of 'naked', got to senior management in a global firm whilst battling an eating disorder and aged only 25. Unable to find an in-house female senior manager role model, she decided to step up to the role herself in order to inspire women in the workplace.
Now read how she sat at the top of Machu Picchu watching the sunrise and found the purpose that changed her life forever. And 'naked' was born.
Here's the third and final part of Sonia Brown's story.
From a Jamaican, South London background, Sonia has crafted a pathway to success that involved helping and inspiring other women and creating an impressive network of influential people who have championed her cause.
Read on and find out how being a black woman from a Jamaican family has influenced her leadership and her top tips for women aspiring to be leaders.
n part 1, we gained an initial insight into the most significant thing that got the extraordinary and quirky Sonia Brown to where she is today – self-belief!
And we learned that the National Black Women’s Network is helping her live her purpose and dreams.
Now read part 2 and discover how she overcame her greatest challenges on her journey and how networking is not only the purpose of her business but the key to her success.
Sonia Brown - founder of the National Black Women’s Network in 1999, she’s built a durable business model that’s still going strong. And you don’t have to be a black woman to know her.
Because she’s there on stage in her killer heels and big hair at many women focused business meetings I attend, where she intrigues, inspires and initiates a buzz and a laugh.
How many women do you know started their working life as a receptionist and made it to Chief Officer?
Not many, I guess, because secretarial staff, typically women, are often underrated.
So it takes an extraordinary kind of woman to achieve this particular success in a demanding profession such as Probation. Right?
My Page 1 Woman is indeed extraordinary. And she exemplifies the talent that organizations ignore at their peril when women employees are undervalued.
My Page 1 Woman, Avril da Costa Maia, has turned her battle with depression into a business service that helps others to conquer the limiting effect by creating excellence.
With loss and heartbreak a narrative in her life – the death of her mother and her first child, having to leave Zimbabwe, (the family home), her 2nd born placed on a ventilator at birth and not expected to live, her 3rd child born with a disability and serious financial difficulties, you’d have expected her to hit a permanent rock bottom...
Think of the term Aspergers, what images do you get? Someone who’s incapable of learning? Someone with some kind of mental illness?
These are stereotypes and negative ones to boot. But negatively is how those with Aspergers are largely viewed.
What if I were to say that people with Aspergers are often very talented? Witness the likes of Bill Gates, Albert Einstein, Woody Allen, Michael Palin, Susan Boyle, Darry Hannah and Bob Dylan- I could go on.....
When poverty and hunger are real for 13 million people in the UK, this is an obscene amount of food to bin.
And here’s the thing – many of us don’t think twice about wasting food because many of us aren’t aware of food poverty.
So what do such startling statistics have to do with my Page 1 Woman? Everything, because she’s a co-founder of the charity, Plan Zheroes. Launched in 2010, it aims to achieve zero food waste and zero hunger...
Here’s the scenario: a person with a 1st class degree in physiology and biology plus a doctorate in neuroscience. A brain box, right?
But what if that person was a blonde woman with a Geordie accent, what would you think, then?
My Page 1 Woman is all those things and a brain box too. And over the years she’s faced confidence- knocking stereotyping when people didn’t believe she was clever enough to have a ..
For many of us, swimming the Channel ranks alongside walking on the Moon – high risk adventures attempted by a ‘super human’ few. And usually, the ‘super human’ few are never ourselves – always someone else.
My Page 1 Woman is definitely not ‘super human’. But, she’s fearless, persistent, driven and has a tendency to ask ‘bold questions’ that other people might shy away from. She spots opportunities, calculates the risk but goes for them anyway. And she has dared to dream big and take on challenges that push her personal boundaries. She has the usual self-doubts – well, she’s human – and she’s definitely inspirational. She’s a Page 1 Woman with a twist....
Some people might have low expectations of a woman with this kind of academic history. But in the case of my Page 1 Woman, they’d be wrong, because her capabilities belie the qualifications with which she left school...
This woman has proven that your academic performance at school need not set the tone for the rest of your life. In fact, she’s proven that the school environment and unchallenging teachers can limit the brightest amongst us. And leaving and finding a thirst for continuous learning can be the thing that spurs you on. So it was for Carol Stewart, director of ‘Abounding Solutions’...
If you were 20 and was told to go buy a family home and settle your younger siblings in a big city far from your Midlands roots, could you do it? As horrified as my Page 1 Woman was, she rose to the challenge and excelled. In fact my Page 1 Woman has led a life characterised by big challenges which would have fazed many. When just 14 years old, she took responsibility for the care of her seriously ill mum and became a surrogate mother to her 3 younger siblings. Whilst she did well, it meant that she had to leave school at 16 and sacrifice the opportunity of a university education. However, there were pay-offs....
When you hear of a strong-willed 16 year old girl, what image comes to mind? A stereotypical ‘difficult’ adolescent? My Page 1 Woman, Hilary Robson, might have been seen as such. But it was precisely her determination and refusal to accept the status quo that got her into a ‘male profession’, where she became a director at the age of 29. When asked by her career advisor, “Have you thought about a nice bank job, dear?” Hilary Robson wasn’t fazed by gender stereotypes. And when denied work experience in....
