Every International Women's Day invites celebration. We reflect on progress, milestones reached, and doors once closed that are now open. Yet it also reminds us that while opportunities have expanded, internal barriers shaped long before we entered the workforce often remain.
We still hear "be more confident," as though confidence is the final piece of the puzzle. For many of us, confidence was never the real obstacle. The deeper challenge was permission. Permission to aspire. Permission to take up space. Permission to believe we belonged in leadership roles in the first place.
Leadership has traditionally been associated with visibility and volume: the person who speaks first, the one who commands attention, the one who appears unwavering. But leadership does not look the same for everyone. For women from migrant households or traditional families, leadership often begins quietly, through responsibility, resilience and observation.
A corporate career was rarely part of the blueprint. The unspoken path felt predetermined: from daughter, to wife, to mother, a life supporting others rather than taking the centre stage. Meanwhile, male counterparts were frequently exposed to informal apprenticeships, witnessing
Those early signals shape how we put ourselves forward and follow us into the corporate world, showing up in meetings where we rehearse points several times before speaking, in performance conversations where we hesitate to articulate ambition and in moments where we question whether directness will be misinterpreted.
Leading Without Wearing a Mask
In high-performance industries like fintech, the pressure intensifies. There is often an unspoken template for what leadership should look like - assertive, decisive, outwardly confident. Over time, many women learn to perform that version of leadership. This can ultimately lead to burnout, not because women aren't capable, but because we are constantly managing perception while navigating rules we were never taught.
The turning point comes when you stop trying to be what everyone else wants you to be and start leaning into what makes you effective: credibility, competence and
For me, growth at Banking Circle came from doing exactly that. I joined as one of the first commercial hires in Australia, building relationship management for key clients from the ground up. This role has taught me so much, but importantly, that consistent delivery and authenticity create impact and that leadership does not need to look one way to be effective.
Banking Circle's merit-based culture ensures that your title does not limit your growth and opportunity is defined by capability and impact rather than hierarchy. Leadership can show up in many forms, and results matter more than self-promotion. Seeing women across the business leading at every level demonstrated something powerful: if you can see it, you can be it.
The Power of Seeing Yourself Reflected
Mentorship and representation accelerated this realisation. There is something deeply affirming about connecting with women who are a few steps ahead in their careers and recognising parts of your own story in theirs. It replaces doubt with evidence.
Through volunteering with the Emerging Payments Association Asia and Women in Payments and being selected for Money20/20's Rise Up Program in 2022 and later co-leading the cohort as an Ambassador in Bangkok in 2024, I engaged with leaders who spoke openly about navigating cultural expectations, bias, and self-doubt. These spaces create access to a global community of women who have faced similar challenges and shared how they overcame them.
Representation does more than inspire; it recalibrates what feels possible. When you see women who share your starting point succeeding without abandoning who they are, it reshapes your internal narrative. You stop trying to conform and start building in your own way.
Building Workplaces That Adapt
Personal resilience is important, but systemic change matters more. Too often, the same advice shared with women is also given to men. Equity is not sameness; it recognises that individuals enter workplaces from different starting lines. For women conditioned to avoid self-promotion or confrontation, being told to simply be more confident can feel unrealistic. The responsibility cannot sit solely with women to adjust.
Supportive leaders make a difference. Managers who advocate on merit and actively create space for people to grow can fundamentally shift career trajectories. That means recognising and rewarding contribution proactively rather than waiting for someone to raise their hand. It means creating clear and visible progression pathways and structured sponsorship programs that are intentional and tracked, rather than relying on informal relationship building that often favours those most comfortable dominating conversations.
It also means asking better questions in one-on-ones, such as, "Is there a project you have been curious about outside your current scope?" or "What would you take on if you knew you would not fail?" These conversations surface ambition that might otherwise remain unspoken. When organisations broaden their definition of leadership, they unlock talent that was always there.
Real empowerment means creating workplaces where women don't have to shrink, pretend, or constantly prove themselves to be seen. Leadership is not defined by who dominates a room; it is defined by who strengthens it.
If I could speak to my younger self, I would say this. Don't be afraid of your ambition, and don't let fear of not being confident enough hold you back. Your competence, credibility and capability will always have more impact than performative confidence. The most effective teams and rooms are built on diverse voices, perspectives and ideas, so use everything that makes you different as your greatest advantage.
Women do not need to change to fit the workplace. The workplace must evolve to embrace the full range of women already leading within it.