Choosing to challenge means feeling responsible for myself as a woman and for the women around me (family, friends, colleagues and even those who I don’t know personally). It means calling out gender bias, discrimination or inequality. It means seeking out, spotlighting and celebrating women’s progress and achievements.

Personally, there are a lot of ways I can do this. It’s simply listening sometimes to pained rants, to vulnerable confessions, to heavy silences. It’s speaking (up) sometimes, it’s shielding sometimes. It’s figuring out ways to creatively navigate many levels of culturally, socially, and financially unfavourable systems.

Professionally (and I believe this is very impactful), it’s designing programs to grow and include women in systems they’re disconnected from. It’s supporting those in my team that will come after me – giving them room, learning from them, cheering them on, even when (especially when) they don’t think they’re doing enough.