What's a belief you've changed your mind on?

Ashish KothariMake flourishing your competitive edge

Reclaiming the Power of Femininity in Leadership

5 May 2026 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

0:47

In a rapid‑fire segment of the YouTube interview "Reclaiming the Power of Femininity in Leadership," host Ashish Kothari asks Speaker B about a belief she has changed. She reveals that she once thought women had to suppress femininity and adopt masculine traits to be taken seriously in male‑dominated environments—a notion reinforced by male mentors who advised her to dress and behave more like men. She now realizes that this suppression disempowers women and advocates embracing femininity as a source of strength for women in leadership, sharing this insight with other female leaders.

Questions this video answers

I used to think that, as a woman in male‑dominated spaces, I needed to suppress my femininity and act more masculine to be taken seriously—a view reinforced by male mentors who told me not to dress too feminine. I now realize that doing so disempowers us, and I advocate embracing femininity as a strength for women in leadership.

Chapters

I'll end with a series of rapid-fire questions. So first question is, what's a belief you've changed your mind on?
The most profound one has been that to work in male-dominated spaces as a woman, you need to suppress your femininity and be more masculine to be listened to or taken seriously. That I was sort of trained to do, you know, particularly by, I think, male colleagues or older, you know, male mentors who would constantly tell me, you know, don't dress too feminine. Dress like a man and, you know, these people can smell that you're not like them. So you need to be more. And what I realize now, and I always share with other women in leadership roles, when we do that, we're disempowering ourselves.