Four of the five Chilean alumnae that traveled to New York to participate in the intensive three-day Women in Leadership Workshop presented in Santiago mid-December their takeaways and lessons learned during the seminar.
The four women leaders that presented in Santiago were Isabel Aninat (LLM ‘13), Paula Estévez (MS ‘06), Rosario Palacios (MSUP ‘00), and María José Pérez (MSE 2015). The fifth integrant on the New York trip, Katherine Lama (MPA ‘16), was unable to attend.
All five were sponsored by the Santiago Center to travel to Columbia University mid-June for the event. Aninat, Estévez, Palacios and Pérez reflected on the different blocks in which they participated during the workshop, which was held on campus. They highlighted sessions such as gender equality and women on the board, as well as coaching sessions on strategic communications, personal branding, giving TED-type talks and networking.
One of the issues brought up was to challenge the “impostor syndrome” – or the doubts and self-undermining of an individual’s accomplishments, attributing success to luck – that women may have. During the sessions they were also invited to question the presupposition of how a woman “should be” and examine whether the status quo is due to agency – free choice – versus structure, or factors that can limit decisions.
In the end, it is important to be faithful to the values that one may hold and to the person that one is, they said.
Following the presentations, attendees were divided into different groups to speak and network with the women leaders.
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