Women, Leadership and Keeping Our Feet Firmly on the Ground

Most of my conversations with my newly made friend Preethi make it to my writing. This is yet another one of those pieces. We recently had a discussion about how women, especially women in leadership positions, must not brag about their roles and achievements across organisations. Let me explain.

For years, women have made a ruckus about the unfair practices of the patriarchy. Now let me ask you, how did the patriarchy come into place in the first place? Because of the existence of a patriarchal system, women, for centuries, were expected to stay at home and be nurturers and caregivers. This was accepted for God knows how many hundreds of years.

Now, perhaps one of these women decided to step out and become a breadwinner alongside her husband or partner one day. Thanks to that one woman, the rest of us women today have the opportunity to follow suit. Perhaps that one revolutionary woman faced a lot of backlash because she decided to step away from the mould.

Keeping this history in mind, and the years of struggle that she, along with dozens of women before and after her, endured, is all the more reason for us womenfolk to stay grounded the more we rise in our professions. To remain approachable and friendly, and to step in and lend a hand whenever asked, must remain our focus.

Anything else, which includes bragging about our achievements and, worst of all, male-bashing, is not something we must indulge in.

Perhaps I've been blessed to have married a wonderfum man, been raised by even more great men and, hopefully, am raising one too. Men are our allies, not the enemy.

As long as we're clear about all of these points, we're good to go. So, repeat after me now: no bragging about work, because no one will remember you for anything other than being an arrogant prick then (excuse my language), and definitely no male-bashing — not today or any other day, for that matter.

On that note, here's to achieving even more wonderful things, with our heads and feet firmly planted on planet Earth and not floating around in some other galaxy.