Vanisa Dhiru, left, Jacinta Gulasekharam and Dr Farah Palmer discuss how women leaders can pave the way at an International Women's Day talk at UCOL on Monday. Photo / UCOL
Vanisa Dhiru, left, Jacinta Gulasekharam and Dr Farah Palmer discuss how women leaders can pave the way at an International Women's Day talk at UCOL on Monday. Photo / UCOL
Two months before Vanisa Dhiru was due to become president of the National Council of Women she told the then president and chief executive she didn't want the role anymore.
Speaking at an International Women's Day event on Monday co-hosted by UCOL Public Talks and Te Aho Tāmaka Manawatū Leaders,Dhiru said she was in a negative mindset and it took many people to get her out of that.
Dhiru grew up in Palmerston North in the 1980s where her parents owned two grocery businesses and she was the only Indian girl at her high school.
When she began to doubt herself before stepping up to the president role, those around her asked what she would say to someone in the same situation.
"I'd just tell them to get over it," Dhiru replied.
"Those dark moments are things people often don't talk about." However, the dark moments can become treasures you can keep in your pocket and pull out for others to give inspiration.
There was plenty of inspiration, candid moments and sharing at the Q & A session, which also featured Dr Farah Palmer and Jacinta Gulasekharam.
Palmer was the first woman on the New Zealand Rugby board. She said she had been mistaken for wait staff. Palmer spoke about not wanting to "stuff it up" as she didn't want to be the last woman on the board. The board now has two female members - Palmer and Jennifer Kerr - and Palmer chairs the New Zealand Māori Rugby Board.
Palmer shared she started questioning inequality when she was a teenager, including writing a letter about why there was no girls' cricket team at her school.
Gulasekharam is the co-founder of Dignity, a social enterprise that has created access to more 30,000 sustainable period products to tackle period equity.
She said three times during the ultimately successful campaign for free period products for school students she said to her team she didn't want to do this anymore as she was under too much pressure. She even asked for the campaign's website to be shut down. However, those around her asked who she wanted to make changes for and she focused on the students and their opinions.
Gulasekharam said the key is to have people around you who believe in change as much as you do. She said while it was International Women's Day, we needed to acknowledge that not all women experience life in the same way.
Gulasekharam said it was outrageous that of the 11,000 Kiwis who lost their jobs in the June 2020 quarter, 10,000 were women. She spoke of the gendered experience of lockdown with women doing childcare, working from home, making meals, and taking on extra responsibility without community support.
Palmer, who is a senior lecturer at Massey University, said during lockdown male colleagues often managed to write and publish but women didn't.
Some of the 150-strong audience that attended the International Women's Day talk co-hosted by UCOL Public Talks and Te Aho Tamaka Manawatu leaders. Photo / UCOL
When Dhiru was 29 years old she was appointed chief executive of Volunteering New Zealand; it was a dream of hers to be a chief executive in her 20s. However, when she got into the seat she realised she didn't know what she was doing and she was questioning her dream.
Two to three months into the role, she had a dark moment and was needing to find every pocket of energy she had.
Dhiru is learning about unconscious bias and how to talk about it so she can help deliver training to counter it across the communities she works with.
The University of Auckland's website says unconscious bias refers to a bias that we are unaware of. "Implicit or unconscious bias happens by our brains making incredibly quick judgments and assessments of people and situations without us realising."
Dhiru is a champion for equality and was recently recognised in the New Year Honours for services to community and gender rights.
Among the 150-strong audience, who enthusiastically asked questions, was a busload of Nga Tawa Diocesan School Year 13 students who had come from Marton.
