To celebrate this year’s International Women’s Day, ISCRR was invited to listen to and be a part of a panel discussion at the Monash University Accident Research Centre (MUARC), with the following speakers:
The panel answered a range of questions on how they came to be female leaders, and many acknowledged the importance of having supportive mentors who helped encourage them.
“I had a mentor [Judith Charlton, Professor Emerita at Monash University and former Director of the MUARC], I had a vision of the kind of leader I wanted to be and she empowered me so much… she would talk to me about where I wanted to go, what I wanted to do, how were we going to get there…”
– Sjaan Koppel
“The way I have been able to have leadership roles and be able to grow and learn is from saying yes to things… in saying yes, and having opportunities to try things, you make new connections, you grow, and so most of the mentors I have are from those sorts of places…”
– Sarah Anderson
Other themes included assumptions about women that still need to be challenged, work-life integration, and gender equity, with a wonderfully diverse range of responses and opinions from across the panel. The event demonstrated the strong collaborative relationship between our two research groups. ISCRR looks forward to collaborating with MUARC again soon.