What it means to choose to challenge.

It takes a lot of courage to choose to challenge. Sometimes the right thing to do is a road that is bumpier, scarier and full of unknowns. But as I have found from travelling down that road many times – you will never regret doing the right thing.

Our choices are what define who we are and how we live. I still vividly recall not sleeping one night because the next day I had to decide whether or not to be named as a whistleblower which would expose a high-powered and influential leader of his many years of bullying, misogyny and torment of people in the company – most of them women. My mind oscillated between doing the right thing, which would make me vulnerable to retaliation; and doing the ‘safe’ thing. It was when I saw my daughter in the morning that all became clear: I must do the right thing, for the sake of women in generations past and importantly, women in the generations of our future.

I still remember the lump in my throat, my heart beating fast all day and the fear that I felt. In fact, writing this makes me viscerally experience it again. But that experience taught me a lot about courage. Courage is not an absence of fear, but rather it is about choosing to take a more difficult path, even if we are scared. And this is why the theme of this year’s International Womens’ Day – Choose to Challenge – means so much more than a hashtag or a selfie. It is about making the right choices. It is about courage. It is about standing up for ourselves and for the women in our lives. Without this, nothing will change.

Throughout our lives, we will be faced with situations where we are at a crossroad. Sometimes that situation is small and seemingly innocuous, like being in a meeting where someone is being spoken to differently because she is a woman. And we might think that perhaps it is ok – let’s not ‘rock the boat’ or appear to be self-righteous. But in fact, it is in all those small situations that choosing to challenge matters. And regardless of what sexual orientation we identify with, choosing to challenge shows that we respect diversity in all its forms, and we stand in solidarity with each other.   

So the next time you’re in a situation where you observe gender bias, stereotyping or an underrepresentation of diversity (for example - in a leadership team, speakers on a conference program, or nominations for training)… choose to challenge this. Choose to speak up, choose to be a solution and choose to take a different path. And do it every day, not just during International Womens’ Day.