Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) & the power of sisterhood
With International Women’s Day round the corner, I would like to take a few minutes to share my thoughts on why and how sisterhood is a major factor in helping women succeed, be it at the workplace or home.
While the oft acknowledged factors such as creating a level playing field for women, providing career opportunities, supporting young women with mentoring at workplace, and framing policies that enable and foster better diversity and inclusion, are all important, I do feel this one aspect which is often ignored but could be the secret sauce for success, needs more attention and ammunition.
That is not to say allyship, providing equal opportunities to women to develop and progress, providing facilities to help them deal with their multiple responsibilities such as day care, flex timings, menstrual leave and the like, are less important. I just think there is already some degree of awareness and action around these aspects; however, the often-underestimated power of sisterhood needs greater attention.
Three ways of demonstrating sisterhood
Share personal experiences.
This could be the first step in the journey for women who have managed to challenge stereotypes and break invisible ceilings to get ahead and realize their ambitions, wherein they can share their personal experience of not just success but also the struggles to get to where they are; they must make their story relatable to other women who are more often than not looking for role models to emulate or draw inspiration from! I have personally found value in this, both in terms of gleaning insights from the experiences shared by other women, as well as in being able to encourage other women to work towards realizing their dreams by sharing my own not-so-perfect career story.
Shine the (spot)light!
A deeper way to practice sisterhood at the workplace is to use every possible opportunity to shine a light on another woman and celebrate her achievements as your own. How often have some of us felt our accomplishments are not visible to the outside world and these need to be celebrated? The problem with most women is our modesty and underestimation of our achievements (and capabilities) which inhibit the drive to brag about it. How often have some of us felt that because of this very ‘hiding our light under the bushel’ syndrome we get overlooked for promotions and exciting career opportunities? I have reason to believe quite a few suffer from this syndrome. Hence my recommendation to women out there to seize every opportunity to shine a light on women around you and celebrate their successes and achievements as your own! You will be doing them a great service by sharing their successes and celebrating their achievements.
Lead the way!
This is truly the most impactful way that a woman can have a very positive and far-reaching impact in helping other women succeed in realizing their goals. This is really about practicing what you preach and sharing your journey, experiences and perspectives along the way, and this could include moments of failure, struggle, setbacks etc but what matters is to use your experience to encourage, motivate, support and inspire other women to take the next step forward in breaking the barriers and moving ahead on their journey to realize their goals and aspirations. The visible and quite often invisible impact of this can be described as a way to ‘Lift as you Rise’.
This year’s IWD theme is #EmbraceEquity. In order for this to happen apart from the time-tested efforts we take in our organizations to embrace equity in addition to Inclusion and Diversity, let us also take a pledge to truly unleash the power of sisterhood!
By sowing the seed of sisterhood let us grow not just a few trees but plant hope for a bright future for the many unsung sheroes waiting to take off!
