Successful women break the ‘glass ceiling’

That glass ceiling women workers come up against can seem as flimsy as cling wrap if you align yourself with the right people to help you break through it.

This is the message from some of the state’s most successful females in management.

And the best news is it doesn’t matter what your industry or what obstacles you face; with the right attitude, a support network of mentors and a strong conviction, you can be climbing that career ladder in no time at all.

Just ask Minda CEO Susan McInerney, who says one of the smartest things ambitious career women do is seek out mentors.

“Always try to find someone who knows more than you and learn as much as you can,” Ms McInerney advises. “Don’t be afraid of saying `Can you teach me?'”

She also advises that once you’ve reached the top, don’t think you have nothing left to learn.

“Don’t be insular – you’re not alone. There are plenty of people who are willing to share strategies they have,” Ms McInerney says.

She started out as a nurse but Ms McInerney says it wasn’t long until she had a thirst for management.

During her career, she left the health-care sector to work for shareholder companies before six years ago moving back into the health sector and taking on a role at a not-for-profit organisation.

While Ms McInerney struggled at times to balance motherhood, studying and working, she’s sceptical of the notion of a glass ceiling.

“From a personal level, studying and having children and working is difficult. A lot of women would say that,” she says.

“When my children were young, I chose management positions that were flexible. That glass ceiling term is bandied around sometimes but I don’t believe it exists.

“You talk to other women who can’t get ahead and say it’s because of the glass ceiling . . . they are mesmerised by the myth of it.”

Similarly, Terri Scheer Insurance general manager Carolyn Majda says gender has never prevented her from moving forward.

“I honestly don’t think it has made a difference to me. As long as you’re committed to what you do, I think that’s as important as anything else,” she says.

However, Ms Majda admits strong female leadership can go a long way to encouraging women to enter management roles – such as at Terri Scheer Insurance:

“The company was really female-dominated. It wasn’t a deliberate choice but because there was a female CEO it attracted more females.”

Ms Majda says women have a lot to offer at the top rungs of the career ladder.

“I could say (they bring) a softer approach but I don’t mean that in a weak way,” she says.

“They have different strengths to men. They can be quite intuitive about their people.”

But a word of advice: Women need to channel their ambition appropriately so that they are not negatively stereotyped.

“I think being yourself is very important – a lot of women think you have to be very aggressive. You just have to be yourself,” Ms Majda says.

“It’s important that women can be assertive but not aggressive. I think some women can get a bit confused with that.”

One person who managed to make this distinction and build a successful career in what was once an extremely male-dominated industry is Ann-Marie Chamberlain.

The state general manager for Retail Banking SA & NT for National Australia Bank, Ms Chamberlain is one of the most senior female executives in retail banking across the nation.

Since the age of 30, she has been working her way up through management roles – despite once having aspirations of a completely different career path.

“I wanted to be a hairdresser and I went to lots of interviews and got down to the last two but didn’t get it and I thought `It’s not supposed to be’,” Ms Chamberlain recalls.

“I then found myself in banking, beginning work as a typist and getting tea and coffee for the boss.

“I joined in 1981 and if you got to first teller, you were doing pretty well.”

Like Ms McInerney and Ms Majda, she recommends aligning yourself with good mentors and having a healthily inquisitive mind.