Drum Roll, Please!
GalaxShe.co formally launched on 21st March at 17:00 IST.
Our theme for the event was “Women Pushing Boundaries” and we had a panel of women from very different backgrounds sharing their stories and life lessons with us. Preeti Reddy, Chairwoman South Asia, Insights Division of Kantar, Radhika Vaz – Stand-Up Comedian and Aparrna Gupta – Beauty Writer.
Each of our panellists spoke about their journeys to get where they are today. They said that the barriers they faced, were not only those imposed on them by society or family, but also barriers in their own minds. Those are the most difficult barriers to push past, because we do not easily recognise these self-imposed barriers.
Women seem to be more susceptible to imposter syndrome, especially if they are the only woman in the room.
The recommendations that our panel gave our listeners included:
- Importance of Networking for which you need to hone your people skills & your communication skills
- Importance of having mentors – within and outside your organisation. These mentors could be younger than you if you change professions mid-way, so put aside your ego
- Figure out where your passions lie – this could evolve into a completely different career down the line.
- Zig Zag your career if you want to widen your experience. Lateral growth is not the only path.
- Financial Independence – especially important if you want to switch careers mid-way into a creative space, because financial stress will kill creativity.
- Consistency of performance. Be Dependable.
- It is easier to take risks, if you are happy with what you are doing.
We had over a hundred participants log in and while the majority were women, we also had a lot of supportive men join us for the launch and to cheer us on. GalaxShe has been conceptualised as a safe space for women online to Ask Bindaas and Share Dil Se. Our website / app is for women only, but our social media channels are open to all. We do not mean to exclude men completely from dialogue and may open some of our webinars to them too, depending on the topic under discussion.
In case you missed out, here is the video recording of the event –
Women Pushing Boundaries
The discussions with the speakers ignited some meaningful conversation in the chat amongst the participants. Here are some messages and feedback:
“Imposter Syndrome is something women struggle with in companies that keep saying that their hiring was a “diversity hiring” as they wanted more women on front-line sales roles, they keep thinking maybe they were not good enough, but they got through because their gender and not because of their calibre. This has happened to me in my last two stints. Need to remove this barrier, thanks Preeti for calling it out, I will work on this.” – Bijoyini Ganguly
“Having Faith in owns capabilities – it gives me great Strength when I hear someone as established as Preeti talking about it.” – Soumya Panda
“When you’re happy doing something…its easier to be risk happy… great insight there!” – Deepshikha Surendran
“Completely agree – having children should be a matter of personal choice and not assumption by others of the role they think you need to perform.” – Shalini Shrivastav
“Women need to get comfortable with asking for what is due to them – personally and professionally” – Sneh Sharma
“It helps a lot in increasing your confidence, if you are comfortable with your finances.” – Ekta Roongta
“I hope wish and pray that GALAXSHE can give voice to underprivileged women , women who completely lack power to voice ! We still see lot of privileged ones on the block , including myself” – Smrati Bajpai
“Women are not sum total of what they give to the world as they are made out to be. Children. Mothering, nurturing. They exist as human to experience what the world offers” – Ritu Garg
“I’m glad, I stumbled upon this event on fb. I have joined Galaxshe. Awesome Event” – Siji
– Contributed by Kim
