I will not stay silent on International Women’s Day - not now, not ever…

“Women belong in all places where decisions are made.”

Sarah Queenan

The 2024 International Women’s Day official UN Women Australia-led theme this year is Count Her In: Invest in Women and Accelerate Progress. To mark the occasion, we spoke with our Founder and Managing Director of Humanify HR Consulting, Sarah Queenan to share her lived experience as a young female leader and business owner, including steps she believes we can take to support more women to excel in the modern world of work.

Sarah Queenan, LLM, LLB, BSc (Psych), GDLP, GAICD, FCPHR is an entrepreneur, company director, author and senior executive. In 2021, she founded the HR and workplace advisory firm Humanify HR Consulting.  Prior to establishing her own business, Sarah had a successful career as a senior executive, often as the youngest and only female leader in the room.

I think my career has been quite unique, some of the experiences I’ve had have really shaped the strength of character I have today.  Australian workplaces and the business environment more broadly are not set-up to support women. Change is being made, but progress is slow. I think it is important for women to understand this reality, that it can still be tough.

Working in heavily male dominated industries and organisations, has built my strength and resilience.  I still remember one of those organisations, I was in my mid-twenties and would wear the brightest pink clothing I could find – particularly on days of an executive meeting. As the only woman in the room, I already knew that I was going to stand out – so there was no way I was going to try and fit in at those decision-making tables.

This can be something that women come up against, that pressure to fit into the environment they are working in. The pressure associated with this can see women adapt their behaviour, sometimes in inauthentic ways. 

For example, some women to cope will take on overly masculine traits, sometimes without even knowing they are doing it.  I think at times I may have fell into that trap, taking on overly assertive behaviours that were not natural to me.  However, I was quite self-aware, so I did realise it was happening and held onto the traits more natural to me, like kindness, empathy, and self-reflection.  All these behaviours that come more naturally to women and are essential to great leadership – that ironically when we are trying to ‘fit-in’ to more masculine workplace environments are challenged.

I really enjoy speaking to young women today who are starting out in their careers.  They will often ask me for advice.  I think if someone had told me when I first started out some advice like – “don’t try to fit in, be yourself always” it would have saved me a lot of angst.  Likely if someone had told me that though, I wouldn’t have understood it at the time. 

I remember one of my mentors said when I first started out – “Sarah, remember women can do it too”.  It is something that all women need to hear and be reminded of, that we can do it too, and sometimes we can do it even better.

Women currently make up around one third of Australian business owners and I understand this number is increasing.  This is great that more women are engaging with the risk that is associated with starting and running a business. 

The more women we have in business, the environment will only continue to shift and change in more positive ways.  Women see things differently, the experiences they have means they bring different perspectives to the business environment.  It is hard work, but so rewarding to run a female-founded business.

With more women starting businesses, this is evidence of how much the modern world of work is changing. Traditional jobs and current ways of working do not always support the full economic participation of women. We know this, with the current measures the Government is implementing to drive improved access to flexible working and more balanced gender representation on boards and leadership teams. 

I think this is really important, if you are looking to do anything - but specifically in relation to starting a business, you need to know why you are doing it. If you know the purpose and reason for what it is you are doing, then everything else comes a lot more naturally.

I started my business with a passion and purpose to help business leaders bring a more human-centered approach to their most important assets – people. 

I couldn’t see at the time how I could achieve this without trying to do it myself.  I really had to back myself in.  It was hard, I didn’t always have the confidence to do it. 

This is something all women need to get better at doing, is backing both ourselves and others in.  Building this confidence will open more doors for everyone.

#CountHerIn #IWD2024