Don’t let anyone tell you what leadership should look like.
Those were words of advice from the keynote speaker at the American Chamber of Trinidad and Tobago’s Women’s Leadership Conference, Attorney-at-Law and Lay Assessor from the Equal Opportunity Tribunal, Veera Bhajan.
Ms. Bhajan was born without arms and shared her story of being given limits on what she could achieve.
“My experience, while very personal, is reflective of a broader societal malaise, a disease. Women, especially those with perceived differences, often confront the biases that hinder their personal and professional development. These biases are not just individual prejudices but are often institutionalised, making them formidable.”
Ms. Bhajan said though at first she allowed others to influence her life choices, she soon learnt that the only opinion that mattered was her own.
“Sometimes it’s not just our men, but sometimes it’s our women who many times possess these brutal prejudices that cause discrimination in our own spaces. It’s not just the professional world where we face these biases; we also face it in our personal lives.”
Meanwhile, Chairman of AMCHAM, Nirad Tewarie, said there are seven women on the body’s fourteen-member Board.
“Please do not ever let anyone tell you that the reason that their Board doesn’t have parity or at least there is some reasonable effort to get to parity is because you don’t have or can’t find competent or qualified or experienced women. That’s rubbish. We have been doing it now for almost seven, eight years at AMCHAM Trinidad and Tobago.”
The theme for AMCHAM TT’s Women’s Leadership Conference was “Accelerate, Take Action.’