WIL Talk #121 Dr. Anju Virmani, Board Member @ Payments Canada / Ontario Power Generation

Why is male allyship so important especially for female leaders? Join us as we speak with Dr. Anju Virmani who spent many years as Director of Engineering and is passionate about her role as a director for many boards which include Payments Canada, Ontario Power Generation and Ontario Health. She migrated to Canada at the young age of 20 and sadly her education was not recognized. But she knew she had to find a way to build a life and sustain herself in her new country and even after a lot of discouragement, she decided to switch from child education to computer programming, eventually leading her into engineering where her focus was about solving for complexities. 

 During our conversation, Dr. Virmani shared with us the opportunities and challenges faced when working in male-dominated sectors, and how she is making a difference for both men and women as they navigate the differences in how we lead. She also speaks about the work she has done to encourage and support students (especially women) in those final years of school by helping with scholarships and mentorship. Her influence spreads wide and far with those she leads and is a role model for. 

The power distribution belongs to men – so how do we get better at empowering more women? And how do you ignore the male influence? This becomes critical to change the narrative. Understanding the role male allies play and how both men and women leaders have a responsibility and power to make this change. She shared a great story when she was invited to join a celebration for Diwali and out of 40 participants, she was the only female in the room. The men were congratulatory and communicative, and yes there were no other women in the room. She was comfortable highlighting this and encouraging everyone to change that in the future. She also talks about the importance of ensuring our boys are raised with equality in mind. We can’t make changes unless we are all working toward building a pipeline for a more equitable future.

 Another wonderful example she shares is when a male ally invited her to a round table discussion with Prime Minister Stephen Harper…to learn what happened and her first experience being on a board, have a listen.

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