33. Empowering women to achieve - with Sonali Shah, Founder of Lean In Melbourne.
Jun 09, 2020
In this podcast, I interviewed Sonali Shah, the founder of Melbourne Lean In network, a thriving community helping women achieve their ambitions. As a Lean In Circles Regional Leader, Sonali supports a large network of women and men dedicated to gender equality. Leading a team of 17 volunteers and working alongside the Foundation and movement put in place by Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, Sonali organizes events, holds training and networking sessions, and works with the LeanIn.Org team to grow and engage the Lean In the community in Melbourne.
Sonali starts by sharing her career progression and story and the path that led her to be so passionate about supporting other women in their careers. She candidly shares her conservative upbringing and the challenges she faced to pursue her university education, move to Australia, and have a corporate career. Sonali also reflects on her personal brand of feminism and how she has embraced new values and learnings along the way and educated others to embrace diversity, women, and mothers in the workforce. Finally, we reflect on the effect of lockdown on women in the workforce and seek the silver linings. You will notice that Sonali is always looking for positive paths to change and ways to better structure work and life to support women and families.
It is a delight to hear her story and learn from her experiences, cheer when she achieved her goals, and empathize with the roadblocks she experienced. It's an inspiring story that led her to found the Lean In network in Melbourne and her long-term passion for supporting women here and in India.
2020 is proving to be such a challenging year. Every day so much is changing, disrupting, and developing. It's tough for those whose jobs and livelihoods have been substantially affected by the pandemic and most recently by the protests happening worldwide. Job hunters are in danger of feeling isolated in their struggles and issues. I hope this podcast, and this episode, in particular, can support you in your job hunting and offer inspiration as you take the following steps in your career.
Here's to all the silver linings in life!
Listen to this episode - Audio link.
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