Women and Work: Then, Now and
What The Future Holds

When I was eighteen years old, I majored in English Literature in my Senior high school year.  As we read the poems, plays and novels I was often struck by how the world has been unfair towards women.  I was often left shocked angry and sad for the female leads in the novels, plays and poems we studied. From their inability to choose who they love, when to have children, access to education, access to certain professions like studying medicine or law….Oh, the scandal to want to be educated! They were born in a wrong time.  It is this reflection that makes me sober when I think of how far we have come.   Is there still much to be done? Yes, but this does not cloud my perception of whether we are better of or worse. 

In the 21st century, our society has made significant progress with regard to gender discrimination, we can vote, go to school and choose our professions among many other freedoms.  Granted, some professions are still male-dominated, and settling in those spaces can be quite difficult, we still acknowledge and are happy that the doors are open to women now. We are way better of than women in earlier years. We still do have a gender pay gap to consider, friendlier maternity leave policies to be implemented, ending child marriage, socialising our society to not accept domestic violence as a norm amongst some of the hurdles we need to jump.

Women are now given the opportunity to sit at the table in boardrooms, in parliament, etc. And it is now our responsibility to take up space. We must show up when given the baton in this relay. Women before us were ostracised and ridiculed for wanting this opportunity and so we must not take it for granted.

It is now our responsibility to be the torch bearers for the next generation. We owe it to ourselves to empower young girls, to teach them how to speak up, and to teach them to take up their own space in whatever field they want to be in.

Over the last 10 years, in particular, a significant amount of research has been conducted on gender diversity in leadership. We are now living at a time when women leaders are on the rise, especially in the political space.  I love this because representation at the top is the best way to get your challenges considered. Being in the IT world I do believe that we need more women in IT.  There is a noticeable lack of Snr Software Engineers. I am confident that this will change with time as more young women take up IT studies.

This is a great time for women to surround themselves with women who are powerful – you have to step out of your comfort zone and put yourself in spaces where you will be inspired. Things like resilience, courage, and leadership are like muscles that you have to build and strengthen, so do whatever you must to ensure that you are constantly working those muscles and learning from various leaders.

“Our Deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.  Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light and not our darkness that most frightens us.  We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?’ Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God.  Your playing small does not serve the world.  There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you” Marianne Williamson. I love this quote because it implies that women can do great things.

Be courageous.

Bertha has been with The CRM Team for 5 years overseeing Delivery Operations, she is a Prosci Certified Change Management Practitioner, a Microsoft Dynamics 365 Marketing Functional Consultant Associate and she holds a BCOM in Marketing Degree. She is currently busy with an Advanced Project Management Certification and is equipped to deliver projects using Agile Principles. Her Favorite workplace Moto is  “When our Customers Win, We win! ”