Mamta Saha holds a Bsc and Msc Occupational Psychology with postgraduate qualifications along with 20 years of global experience. Her consultancy focuses on how to become consciously inclusive. She has worked with Tesco, L’Oréal, The House of Lords The Malala Fund, Sony and Bupa to say the least. As an advocate of leadership, she has created and led “Unlocking Self-limiting Beliefs” workshops at Lloyds of London and internationally. She continues to design and coach corporate executives on Authentic Leadership, Emotional Resilience, Mindfulness, Conflict Resolution and Diversity & Inclusion.
As a psychologist, what is your key observation of women when it comes to lack of equality in any walk of life? How does that impact a woman’s psyche?
My experience as a psychologist and working very closely with women across all levels most senior to junior, I feel like women miss out on significant opportunities because of issues around a lack of confidence, self-belief, lifestyle circumstances and the general emotional labour and the invisible labour that a lot of women commit to subconsciously or is just put upon them subconsciously and I feel like this leads to a lack of equality for women, particularly at home in the workplace.
How can a woman make sure that her voice is heard in a room of people, many of which are male-dominated?
For a woman to have her voice heard and she really needs to know what her intention is, and her purpose is, what is her overall intention and purpose not just for that meeting or conversation, but actually overall, you know, what kind of impact does she want to create in life and that it will create a great foundation for her to actually fulfil that that purpose and also it will help her to assert herself in situations that may be male-dominated. It's also for women to call out things that they feel maybe are not fair or right. For them, for example, men getting more pay or somebody else getting more pay than them and they're doing the same job, or people getting more opportunities or opportunities being quite unfair, for example, opportunities might be around, a revolving around a day of golf and that's unfair. So if a woman feels like something's unfair, and it may hinder her progress that she needs to be able to really call that out and share that openly. assertiveness and confidence also and having that voice also has a lot to do with body language. So really use powerful body language to stand to be assertive and to not be afraid to make eye contact, and also use a good too strong tone in which to articulate the points that they're trying to make.
What can we as a community learn in order to work collectively to support each other in our careers and personal growth?
Support, don’t exploit. Don’t expect pro-Bono work and freebies. Value a Women's contribution and worth. Stick together, be loyal, stay consistent, and be honest
What can we as a community do to embrace equity, especially when it comes to women and their overall upliftment in every possible way?
Be an ally
Call out inappropriate treatment/policies
Advocate for yourself and others
Mentoring schemes
Look at behavioural gaps and address them
Create opportunities for women to shine
What kind of psychological approach drives equity and harmony among women?
Psychological safe culture and climate
No holds barred and judgement
Let women speak with openness from the heart
Create opportunities for collaboration
Allow women to be unapologetic
