Leading women detail career journeys, offer advice
Contact: Carl Smith
STARKVILLE, Miss.Women in key Mississippi State and local leadership positions recently reflected on their career paths, discussed barriers and hardships they faced while climbing the professional ladder and offered advice to those aspiring to make a difference on campus and in their communities.
酴圖弝け faculty and staff gathered Tuesday [Sept. 20] in Bost Auditorium for Lets Talk About That!: Women in Leadership, a panel discussion including RaSheda Forbes, vice president for Access, Diversity and Inclusion; Regina Hyatt, vice president for Student Affairs; Bethany Mills, Career Center executive director; and Starkville Mayor Lynn Spruill. Moderated by Aundrea Self, a veteran WCBI journalist and 酴圖弝け Department of Communication lecturer, the panel covered a wide variety of topics specific to womens workplace experiences, from having their credentials and expertise challenged while navigating male-dominated power structures to creating an inclusive climate in which women can share their stories.
Oftentimes for women, we might have been told stories or a narrative about what we can or cant do or become that have been incorrect. Its important to look inside and figure out what your talents and strengths are and if youre speaking up when given the opportunity to show off those talents, Mills said. Its really important for women to know its time to squash those narratives. Create your own narrative and figure out how you can become part of something bigger.
Having a leadership role, Hyatt said, affords her the opportunity to advocate for herself and other women.
Part of our responsibility is to talk about how leadership manifests itself in a variety of ways, and its partly the responsibility of the people in those spaces to recognize that leadership can happen in a lot of different ways, she said. We have to take responsibility for our own advocacy. We are capable, and we have the skill sets necessary to lead and do the work.
To create more equitable spaces in the workplace, Forbes said women should feel comfortable to be their true selves, which includes roles and identities beyond simply being a woman.
We often talk about it as if women only exist in spaces just as women, but they also exist in spaces as women of color, mothers, wivesthese are women who are holding other identities that are both multiple and intersecting. We have to give space so that peoplewomen in particularcan show up in spaces being their authentic selves, Forbes said. Sometimes, we feel the need to put identity out in the background, so we dont feel like we get to show up as who we actually are.
The best way to bring more women to leadership roles in the future is by women continuing to make a difference today, said Spruill, who was the first female U.S. Navy pilot to land an airplane on an aircraft carrier. She recalled Emily Warner, who was the first woman to become a U.S. airline captain in 1976, and said the broken barrier was a doorway to know that opportunity was available.
To know there was someone out there doing it says, Yeah, this is something thats extremely achievable,' Spruill said. Youre out there and youre doing thingsyoure visible. Be available, be out there and be visiblethose are obligations. You lead by being seen.
Forbes said its important for women to leverage their current positions to normalize future generations expectations of what leadership can look like.
Last year, my two oldest boys were huddled in a corner and whispering. I asked what they were whispering about, and my oldest son pulls up the press release from when I became vice president. He said, Oh, mama, you didnt tell me you were a big deal, she said. That was the moment I recognized that theyre watching us, and thats informing the decisions they make and how they think about themselves and the world. The only thing I knew to respond back to them was to never allow the trauma of their past determine what happens in their future and to always look for whatever platform they have and use it.
Thats the thing I walk away with every single day: Its not about the title, and its not about the accolades. Its about the platform and using the platform, and we have to aspire for that platform, Forbes added. Future generations are looking at us to determine what they can do and what they shouldnt do, so leveraging my platform to make an impact is huge.
For more information on the 酴圖弝け Human Resources Management-sponsored panel discussion, contact Brad Skelton atbskelton@hrm.msstate.edu.
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