[Music]
you
my name is Ingrid Lashley and I was
through the glass ceiling before I even
knew it existed you could call me a
survivor a glass ceiling survivor but I
felt as if I did more than survive a
combination of bad mine confidence and
pure ignorance put me on a journey that
was very exciting and rewarding so
what’s this glass ceiling anyway well it
started in the US in the late 1970s
unlike all things u.s. it led to a
commission so I’m going to read to you
the definition of glass ceiling by the
Commission the United States Federal
glass ceiling Commission defines glass
ceiling as the unseen yet unbreachable
barrier that keeps minorities and women
from rising to the upper rungs of the
corporate ladder regardless of their
qualifications or achievements so when I
joined the workforce in 1982 there was
no mention of a glass ceiling which in
part accounted for my ignorance the lack
of awareness helped my confidence the
rest was borne out by bad mine and a
serious competitive spirit so being the
eldest of a family of three girls going
to an all-girls school being encouraged
by my parents to express opinions
respectfully nothing inhibited my
potential there was no talk of a ceiling
at all
added to this personal experience was
the support of an environment that
started to speak of the importance of
education to higher learning the
importance of education to job
opportunity it was at that time that we
saw the opening of the Arthur Locke Jack
School of Business then called the
Institute of business it was a time when
education trumped location it didn’t
matter where you lived
education trumped pull-string it didn’t
care who your father was
education defined your job opportunity
how many of you have seen the movie
hidden figures yeah if you have but if
you haven’t you should the movie is
about afro-american mathematicians women
female african-american mathematicians
who despite their disadvantages of the
time helped to create the early stages
of the NASA space program and thrived
and was successful like them I focused
on the academic my first job was a
return to an old job in that I left as
an audit jr. and returned to this the
seeum audit firm as a graduate I
returned to an environment where a
professional accounting label was more
important than a graduate degree we were
all students the learning was more
important than the job status or the
compensation the reason we thought that
there were no female partners was
because it was a male-dominated
profession and in any event we had
female managers and they become partners
one day we thought or maybe really
nîmes think about it my colleagues and
I of similar back
all girls or all boys
government-assisted schools middle
income backgrounds academic training and
when we decided to play we played in
Dutch fashion what we called Dutch lines
everybody paid their way male or female
connected or not
everything was gender-neutral so having
acquired this experience I had some
short stints with small privately owned
companies until I entered the world of
commercial banking real fact in the mean
the bank that I joined had grown their
in-house talent people joined us tellers
and became managers experience was their
greatest tutor and it couldn’t be
trivialized my colleagues were teachers
they were coaches they were guides for
them the experience was much more
important than the academic but they
recognized that the time required focus
on business training on business
education so they were a little wary of
this newbie with the set of paper and
how I would be accepted and how I would
be thinking of them and what I would
expect of them I worked hard I observed
I allowed myself to be guided and
coached and I learned my teachers were
secondary school graduates who were
experts in their own right my treasury
management teacher couldn’t be beat
attitude more than education determined
my success and their acceptance of me it
was then that the role of a mentor
became apparent in retrospect he would
be my second career guide the first
the partner who rehired me at the audit
room but he was more hands-on he
participated in my career development he
was a father of five girls and treated
me as if I was extra I think deep down
he wanted one of his girls to have a
career in banking and he did it through
me but he was a father to me he was a
mentor he was a teacher he was a coach
and I willingly and gladly strived to
cross every hurdle to make him proud
sometimes it meant going through the
night to beat a deadline in the time of
the cool of the 1990s it the curfew
defined by at home hours not my working
hours so if I didn’t leave the back by
9:00 p.m. it meant that I was leaving at
6:00 a.m. to go home change and retune
sundry duties as assigned meant pitching
in at any time for any purpose with a
proactive approach to getting the job
done I didn’t have to be asked I wasn’t
brought up battery by the time he had
retired from the bank I was an executive
straight to the gas ceiling the
importance of mentoring to career
development overshadowed any glass
ceiling barriers but executive didn’t
define me I was a trainee after all I
was able to marry my career path with
her first four things cultural stephen
calypso the arts in the traditions of my
middle-class upbringing I had been
exposed to the classical strains of
music and dance ballet and piano by the
time I was grown my curiosity searched
for those things that were our own so
onto the steel band onto inter-bank
Calypso Queen this at a time when such
things were not a management
so if panorama finished at 2 a.m.
sleep or no sleep I had to be at work as
early as possible before possible I
couldn’t slip but my exposure to the
steel band world taught me some of
life’s greatest leadership lessons the
experience emphasized the strategic
focus by the entire team the band share
targets when in the panorama shared
knowledge learning attune supreme
leadership in the likes of a man and
ends with muhammad ruler of charles book
see sharp each with styles in their own
right and playing to an audience our
customer and exceeding their
expectations every time these tenets I
came to learn breed success
unequivocally and while active female
participation was increasing it was not
yet prevalent there was still look my
daughter beats in a steel band I lied
even rather my exposure at work and that
play was among men and women who wanted
to teach who wanted to show me the way
woman or not and I didn’t resist
sometimes I even feigned ignorance so in
a son so the lessons will continue
unabated again the journey through the
glass ceiling was conquered with
mentorship well on to the next phase
very much like we all do as we grew up I
moved from my father’s house to a
husband’s house no more mentoring no
more teaching no more protection in this
place I had grown and was expected to be
a member of the team carrying my own
weight success was expected
raelia was just iced no in-betweens no
greens it was then that I became aware
of the glass ceiling it is not by
accident that I use the family metaphor
to speak of my leaders in fact the
analogy speaks to how we define our
relationships by our socialization and
our culture how we take care of each
other male to female and female to male
or even now male to male and female to
female men in our culture relate to
women even in the workplace as they do
to their mothers their sisters their
daughters every generation is socialized
a little differently and we can’t get
away from the social rules that are
ingrained in us as women we must work
with these rules and use them to the
benefit of others and to ourselves for
this we must be mentors ourselves
particularly to other woman I’ve been
mentored by women in my later years
women who were more experienced than I
well men who reached out to me when I
asked for help or maybe they even
volunteered that was their socialization
today in this celebration of women the
glass ceiling is well below them and I
am happy to be a part of that group but
the glass ceiling is alive and well in
the development of women in Trinidad and
Tobago it must not be our burden sure we
must live with and through one past it
but it must not block our vision and our
ambitions we must be willing
no one wants to mentor an uncooperative
candidate no one wants to mentor a non
performer
there’s the essence of that space above
the glass ceiling the space where we
perform we must perform at work we must
perform a plea we must commit to life
work-life balance is not a new idea it
is a new word
all challenge a challenge that will be
even even greater for men than it is for
men though that too is changing its
changing because our socialization is
changing ever so slowly by changing
nonetheless and because it is slower
that our progress into through and
Beyond the glass ceiling we must run to
maintain our step in order to preserve
our space we must stand out to keep up I
imagine in generations to come
it will change but having gone through
the glass ceiling the pillar for
retaining our space our place is
performance even so we still can have an
oddity about a woman’s place or in one
of my experiences Ingrid and the boys we
can be given special mention because we
are our circumstances are unusual the
first CEO or the first chairman female
still gets mentioned one of these days
it’ll just be another person yes indeed
there is a glass ceiling we certainly
don’t need a federal Commission to tell
us that there’s an art a skill in
pushing forward without leaving others
behind there’s a responsibility to take
others with you to mentors you have been
mentored in support of each other as
women we must pull each other through it
we must support each other past it but
the onus is on those who have gone
through it to show themselves worthy I
know many men seem to do less and get
recognition that will not change
overnight and certainly it won’t change
in my lifetime but men are part of our
society too things will change for them
and with them it must
they’re already performance indicators
targeted to diversity and inclusion
in fact we have a Trinidadian a
Trinidadian executive a Trinidadian
female executive who carries the title
global director of diversity at face
book diversity and inclusion is a new
job function in the meantime we must do
what we have to do to be considered
worthy we must be teaching our sons what
our partners do not know we decide it is
our responsibility and what do we do
when we get past the glass ceiling the
message is clear we mentor we learn we
perform and when we’re done there we
start all over again for women the
process is ongoing
we must continue until the glass ceiling
no longer exists for the time being it
is a responsibility of the minority to
support the majority as you have done
today I’ve gone through a glass ceiling
or two in my time and I may come upon
others it’s a tiring but exciting
journey I’ve enjoyed every minute of
proving myself worthy how do you get
through it the message we mentor we
learn we perform over and over we can’t
do it any other way
I thank you
you
you
my name is Ingrid Lashley and I was
through the glass ceiling before I even
knew it existed you could call me a
survivor a glass ceiling survivor but I
felt as if I did more than survive a
combination of bad mine confidence and
pure ignorance put me on a journey that
was very exciting and rewarding so
what’s this glass ceiling anyway well it
started in the US in the late 1970s
unlike all things u.s. it led to a
commission so I’m going to read to you
the definition of glass ceiling by the
Commission the United States Federal
glass ceiling Commission defines glass
ceiling as the unseen yet unbreachable
barrier that keeps minorities and women
from rising to the upper rungs of the
corporate ladder regardless of their
qualifications or achievements so when I
joined the workforce in 1982 there was
no mention of a glass ceiling which in
part accounted for my ignorance the lack
of awareness helped my confidence the
rest was borne out by bad mine and a
serious competitive spirit so being the
eldest of a family of three girls going
to an all-girls school being encouraged
by my parents to express opinions
respectfully nothing inhibited my
potential there was no talk of a ceiling
at all
added to this personal experience was
the support of an environment that
started to speak of the importance of
education to higher learning the
importance of education to job
opportunity it was at that time that we
saw the opening of the Arthur Locke Jack
School of Business then called the
Institute of business it was a time when
education trumped location it didn’t
matter where you lived
education trumped pull-string it didn’t
care who your father was
education defined your job opportunity
how many of you have seen the movie
hidden figures yeah if you have but if
you haven’t you should the movie is
about afro-american mathematicians women
female african-american mathematicians
who despite their disadvantages of the
time helped to create the early stages
of the NASA space program and thrived
and was successful like them I focused
on the academic my first job was a
return to an old job in that I left as
an audit jr. and returned to this the
seeum audit firm as a graduate I
returned to an environment where a
professional accounting label was more
important than a graduate degree we were
all students the learning was more
important than the job status or the
compensation the reason we thought that
there were no female partners was
because it was a male-dominated
profession and in any event we had
female managers and they become partners
one day we thought or maybe really
nîmes think about it my colleagues and
I of similar back
all girls or all boys
government-assisted schools middle
income backgrounds academic training and
when we decided to play we played in
Dutch fashion what we called Dutch lines
everybody paid their way male or female
connected or not
everything was gender-neutral so having
acquired this experience I had some
short stints with small privately owned
companies until I entered the world of
commercial banking real fact in the mean
the bank that I joined had grown their
in-house talent people joined us tellers
and became managers experience was their
greatest tutor and it couldn’t be
trivialized my colleagues were teachers
they were coaches they were guides for
them the experience was much more
important than the academic but they
recognized that the time required focus
on business training on business
education so they were a little wary of
this newbie with the set of paper and
how I would be accepted and how I would
be thinking of them and what I would
expect of them I worked hard I observed
I allowed myself to be guided and
coached and I learned my teachers were
secondary school graduates who were
experts in their own right my treasury
management teacher couldn’t be beat
attitude more than education determined
my success and their acceptance of me it
was then that the role of a mentor
became apparent in retrospect he would
be my second career guide the first
the partner who rehired me at the audit
room but he was more hands-on he
participated in my career development he
was a father of five girls and treated
me as if I was extra I think deep down
he wanted one of his girls to have a
career in banking and he did it through
me but he was a father to me he was a
mentor he was a teacher he was a coach
and I willingly and gladly strived to
cross every hurdle to make him proud
sometimes it meant going through the
night to beat a deadline in the time of
the cool of the 1990s it the curfew
defined by at home hours not my working
hours so if I didn’t leave the back by
9:00 p.m. it meant that I was leaving at
6:00 a.m. to go home change and retune
sundry duties as assigned meant pitching
in at any time for any purpose with a
proactive approach to getting the job
done I didn’t have to be asked I wasn’t
brought up battery by the time he had
retired from the bank I was an executive
straight to the gas ceiling the
importance of mentoring to career
development overshadowed any glass
ceiling barriers but executive didn’t
define me I was a trainee after all I
was able to marry my career path with
her first four things cultural stephen
calypso the arts in the traditions of my
middle-class upbringing I had been
exposed to the classical strains of
music and dance ballet and piano by the
time I was grown my curiosity searched
for those things that were our own so
onto the steel band onto inter-bank
Calypso Queen this at a time when such
things were not a management
so if panorama finished at 2 a.m.
sleep or no sleep I had to be at work as
early as possible before possible I
couldn’t slip but my exposure to the
steel band world taught me some of
life’s greatest leadership lessons the
experience emphasized the strategic
focus by the entire team the band share
targets when in the panorama shared
knowledge learning attune supreme
leadership in the likes of a man and
ends with muhammad ruler of charles book
see sharp each with styles in their own
right and playing to an audience our
customer and exceeding their
expectations every time these tenets I
came to learn breed success
unequivocally and while active female
participation was increasing it was not
yet prevalent there was still look my
daughter beats in a steel band I lied
even rather my exposure at work and that
play was among men and women who wanted
to teach who wanted to show me the way
woman or not and I didn’t resist
sometimes I even feigned ignorance so in
a son so the lessons will continue
unabated again the journey through the
glass ceiling was conquered with
mentorship well on to the next phase
very much like we all do as we grew up I
moved from my father’s house to a
husband’s house no more mentoring no
more teaching no more protection in this
place I had grown and was expected to be
a member of the team carrying my own
weight success was expected
raelia was just iced no in-betweens no
greens it was then that I became aware
of the glass ceiling it is not by
accident that I use the family metaphor
to speak of my leaders in fact the
analogy speaks to how we define our
relationships by our socialization and
our culture how we take care of each
other male to female and female to male
or even now male to male and female to
female men in our culture relate to
women even in the workplace as they do
to their mothers their sisters their
daughters every generation is socialized
a little differently and we can’t get
away from the social rules that are
ingrained in us as women we must work
with these rules and use them to the
benefit of others and to ourselves for
this we must be mentors ourselves
particularly to other woman I’ve been
mentored by women in my later years
women who were more experienced than I
well men who reached out to me when I
asked for help or maybe they even
volunteered that was their socialization
today in this celebration of women the
glass ceiling is well below them and I
am happy to be a part of that group but
the glass ceiling is alive and well in
the development of women in Trinidad and
Tobago it must not be our burden sure we
must live with and through one past it
but it must not block our vision and our
ambitions we must be willing
no one wants to mentor an uncooperative
candidate no one wants to mentor a non
performer
there’s the essence of that space above
the glass ceiling the space where we
perform we must perform at work we must
perform a plea we must commit to life
work-life balance is not a new idea it
is a new word
all challenge a challenge that will be
even even greater for men than it is for
men though that too is changing its
changing because our socialization is
changing ever so slowly by changing
nonetheless and because it is slower
that our progress into through and
Beyond the glass ceiling we must run to
maintain our step in order to preserve
our space we must stand out to keep up I
imagine in generations to come
it will change but having gone through
the glass ceiling the pillar for
retaining our space our place is
performance even so we still can have an
oddity about a woman’s place or in one
of my experiences Ingrid and the boys we
can be given special mention because we
are our circumstances are unusual the
first CEO or the first chairman female
still gets mentioned one of these days
it’ll just be another person yes indeed
there is a glass ceiling we certainly
don’t need a federal Commission to tell
us that there’s an art a skill in
pushing forward without leaving others
behind there’s a responsibility to take
others with you to mentors you have been
mentored in support of each other as
women we must pull each other through it
we must support each other past it but
the onus is on those who have gone
through it to show themselves worthy I
know many men seem to do less and get
recognition that will not change
overnight and certainly it won’t change
in my lifetime but men are part of our
society too things will change for them
and with them it must
they’re already performance indicators
targeted to diversity and inclusion
in fact we have a Trinidadian a
Trinidadian executive a Trinidadian
female executive who carries the title
global director of diversity at face
book diversity and inclusion is a new
job function in the meantime we must do
what we have to do to be considered
worthy we must be teaching our sons what
our partners do not know we decide it is
our responsibility and what do we do
when we get past the glass ceiling the
message is clear we mentor we learn we
perform and when we’re done there we
start all over again for women the
process is ongoing
we must continue until the glass ceiling
no longer exists for the time being it
is a responsibility of the minority to
support the majority as you have done
today I’ve gone through a glass ceiling
or two in my time and I may come upon
others it’s a tiring but exciting
journey I’ve enjoyed every minute of
proving myself worthy how do you get
through it the message we mentor we
learn we perform over and over we can’t
do it any other way
I thank you
you
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