Women find their mettle
A GLOBAL female empowerment movement has arrived in the Far North.
Popularised by Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg through an online TED talk four years ago and sparking books and international workshops, the Lean In movement was established to encourage women to take a more active part in corporate life.
There are now more than 34,000 Lean In circles in more than 150 countries.
After running two successful groups at Cooktown two years ago, Vital Leaders managing director and leadership coach Jilinda Lee plans to start another two in Cairns.
Lean In Circles are small groups of women who meet regularly to learn and encourage each other.
And Ms Lee said she was passionate about using the circles to enable and empower women skills.
“I found in the circles I’ve run previously, the women who joined didn’t necessarily want to be a CEO, they might just want to build their confidence to speak out a bit more at the school P & C meeting,” she said.
“Women often hold back for two reasons. There is a conditioning happening from childhood and the other part is confidence. For some reason they often don’t think they’re good enough for jobs and hold back.”
Lean In Circles meetings will be held at the Cairns RSL and Palm Cove surf clubs, if there is enough interest.
Ms Lee said she had already started discussion with CQU to start groups at the campus. to build leadership