International Women's Day Series: An Interview with our Lisbon Operations Manager

Many of our leadership positions here at Ukio are held by strong, capable women. We’re proud to highlight our many female leaders and today we’re starting with Iris Curto, Ukio’s Operations Manager for the Lisbon Market. She’s a superstar in the workplace, a 5K enthusiast on the weekends, and we couldn’t be more excited to have her on the team.

We had the opportunity to sit down with Iris and share her story on leadership and how she’s navigated any adversity in her career journey.?

What fuels your passion for working as an Operations Manager?

Iris: The capacity to influence a large scale of processes, people and the community. The ability to build teams from scratch and make better professionals. The belief is that you’re making a contribution not only for a company but that every step higher on the ladder is an investment in myself and an opportunity for others.

Have you ever been confronted with gender-related challenges in your career?

Iris: Yes, many times. I was once on a team where the only male was the Director of the department and I felt we were often treated the same professionally because of our sex no matter our hierarchy, ideas or capacity to do tasks. There were also constant “jokes” about the fact that we had a man “ruling” us. It is also important to highlight that this structure in the team (one man with just ladies) was kept for decades.

I’ve also encountered in different positions and departments statements concerning the way I should “definitely wear dresses or skirts” to make me more appealing to clients/guests or superiors.

In the course of my career, I’ve often seen females in leadership roles being defined as strict, too demanding and harsh in a negative way while the same adjectives for males were often positive aspects for a leader meaning that they would have “things in control”. Females should normally be characterized primarily as kind and humble and with a great heart.

Lastly, I’ve also found that males had higher salaries in leadership roles than females.

What advice would you give to women pursuing leadership roles?

Iris: To stay firm on what your instinct tells you no matter what. People might think this is illogical but so far “my guts” have been serving me well on matters where data analysis is not enough. It’s not easy, because you tend to doubt yourself when peers/superiors do not agree with you, so you tend to make decisions based on perceptible info instead of letting yourself be the guide. As your leadership role affects others, decisions aren’t just made on logical grounds all the time, so you need to trust your judgment no matter what.

If you could have lunch with any female leader in history, who would it be?

Iris: Margaret Thatcher – first British Prime Minister. Isn't it great how she stood by her beliefs in such a male-dominated environment? Isn't it amazing how she was politically a conservative but was viewed by many as a revolutionary? Who wouldn’t want to be nicknamed as “Iron Lady”? Would love to know more from her.