“We hosted our first townhall with women leaders to decode the state of leadership roles and here’s how it went 🙋♀️
A small group decided to spend a Saturday evening with Decoding Draupadi to share stories and experiences as women in leadership.
Over the next few days, I’ll share our insights about the underrepresentation of women leaders on panels. Until then, here are some initial thoughts brewing in my mind ☕
1️⃣ We had a 20-slide PPT of prompts and questions to go through and managed to answer only 4. To me, this was a sign that there is a lot to be understood about what goes on at the top rung of the ladder. When we create such spaces, we create an opportunity to arrive at solutions.
2️⃣ Women-only rooms tend to feel safe and reflective. I can’t guarantee this each time, but I just want to take a moment to appreciate how respectful everyone was during the session.
I’m guessing this happened because we’re all on the same boat. For instance, we asked people to take 2 minutes and list out some common stereotypes about women as leaders. When one of them shared what they wrote, I could see each one nod in agreement. And while all their experiences looked different, the biases had ONE root. And maybe that’s a good thing. Maybe that means we understand it. And thus, can fight it.
Anyways, the point is, there was warmth. There was a shared feeling and resonance.
3️⃣ I’m glad we decided for it to be a women-only session. A lot of folks asked me why I’m limiting this to women. If we’re discussing having more leaders on panels, every person that plays a role should be involved right?
While that’s a fair question, I strongly felt that this HAD to be only women in a room. It was a gut feeling, I guess. And, my intent was not to make it a non-inclusive space.
As the session started, I got my answer. I wanted to get people who’ve experienced bias first-hand. It was just as simple as that.
Tomorrow, at Decoding Draupadi, we will organise townhalls with each stakeholder because that’s equally important too.
That was it! Do you have any questions for me? Do you want to join us at the next townhall? Details out soon! P.S. It will be offline.
Meghana Srinivas Narayani Gurunathan Devanshi J. Chandni Rajendran Dr Anjana Vinod Anshika Kushwaha Siddhi Deshmukh Muskaan Lalchandani Vaishnavi Singhal
#womenleaders #DDTownhall #womeninbusiness