The international women’s day breakfast with the British Chamber was wonderful. Bravo!
It was an early start, fresh coffee, smiling faces and a beautiful room at the Ivy in Sydney CBD. If you haven’t been there, the Ivy is a beautiful venue full of great people and the place to do business in style.
I was very lucky to attend their International Women’s Day Breakfast and it was a room with a good 90%+ women and the less than 10% was the proud men like me. In having been raised by a strong mother, I like to think of myself as a ‘Classical Second Wave Feminist’.
In that no purple hair from me or crazy protests blocking freeways; it’s about helping both genders get a true sense of equality and gain more independence and liberty in their lives.
Today’s event did focus on the issues challenging women in the modern world and beyond that; it got me thinking about our own ‘Glass Ceilings’ applied to us.
Sure there can be discrimination going on for whatever reason, however if I think of some of the most successful people I know (gay / straight, man / woman, Christian / Muslim) they actually don’t really care too for labels like these.
In find that even let’s say ‘society’ has put a limiting label on them (e.g. you are a woman, or you are now white or whatever) – they ultimately get over it and go onto achieve many great things.
I think ‘get over it’ means several different things. This can of course be changing the external environment, but I think it needs to be heavily on one’s own thinking. In my own case, I was living in my car when I was around 30 – and today I am going to high-brow events with everyone in suits while I get around in a tight polo wearing and Army Cap.
For me and talking to the wonderful people I know who have gone upwards from nothing; it’s a journey of not only changing your external world (e.g. fighting for equality) but also your internal world.
My advice and thinking? Never let anyone, let alone ‘society’ define you. The establishment is there to be taken down and improved in a way that serves all of us. Hence my justification earlier on my position on Feminism – I am not the modern day “Women need extra rights because”, I am the precursor day “Women need to go harder and take down the system through results”.
Love your work, thank you for the read and love your work Australian British Chamber of Commerce – a wonderful event.
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