This is my dear friend, Belinda, and she’s as down to earth as they come, what you see is what you get. But as an Australian born Chinese (I have since learnt that’s an A.B.C), conscious and unconscious bias comes in many forms.
This is story #1 in an 8 part series for International Women's Day that I'm writing, featuring powerful stories of women who have helped "BreakTheBias".
Belinda was the lady behind the scenes cheering me on when I started Impower Coaching, and since then she has launched a successful marketing business after leaving executive roles at AMP Capital.
While Belinda has dealt with much bias in her life, this doesn’t stop her in any way but she’s willing to share her experiences with everyone to make this world a better place.
Belinda is first generation Australian, having parents that arrived in Australia in the early 1960’s. They attended high school without much English and went on to be successful Australians in their own right. Without stereotyping, they are hard-working immigrants with a drive to make sure their children were educated and could attend university.
Belinda told me a story when she was in Year 2 of primary school. Her mother discovered she was attending ESL (English as Second Language) classes. Her mother asked her “Why are you in these classes, your only language is English?!” Belinda explained that she was doing very well in these classes obtaining many awards and stickers for her great work. The thing is only in the 1980’s, would teachers just look at a kid, judge them and assume.
When we consider the theme of International Women’s Day #breakthebias this type of assumptions, biases and discrimination exist to this day. Are we getting better at it?
Again, when Belinda was in Year 11 as a Peer Support Leader, a teacher said “Be careful of the Asian kids, they are the quiet ones.”, if that isn’t bias what is? The problem with bias is that it permeates through all parts of society so awareness needs to be continually widespread.
Belinda was an integral part of the AMP Capital Diversity Council since its inception in 2010. She often joked that not only was she on parental leave when she was asked to join, she was a woman in a male dominated property industry and from Asian heritage. In terms of ticking boxes it was tick tick tick.
On a more serious note it was a platform for Belinda to advocate for women and have real input into creating policies and actions to support minorities. I’ve met some of Belinda’s colleagues and people she has worked with over the years, and I can see the impact she has had on other women, supporting work promotions and leading with action – not just words.
Belinda helped facilitate more than 100 Unconscious Bias workshops around the country and probably had the best understanding of what was going on at AMP that year!
Many thought Belinda was brave being one of the few women on leadership teams, and being Head of Marketing. There were the associated jokes that it was always HR and Marketing that were represented.
Here’s the thing – for more than 20 years Belinda worked in the shopping centre industry where the customer group was female focussed – research would suggest more than 70%! However the many people that are designing, developing, leasing and managing shopping centres for a good part of her career were men. Of course, real change is starting to happen in that industry but it has been slow.
During her career she met a nice bloke from Galway, Ireland, married him and had two beautiful children, Cara (11) and Liam (8).
You can see how Belinda raises those kids, both children see their parents share household duties and Cara is someone quite extraordinary at 11 years old – willing to try anything and without judgement of herself and others. In Year 4 she won Best Girl Chess Player, only one of four girls out of 30 that competed that year. Having just started Year 7 this year, her dream to be an Engineer is at the forefront.
Belinda’s brother, married a Japanese girl - they are a very mixed family. If anything diversity makes for a much more interesting (and fun) life.
Belinda is now running her own successful marketing consultancy business and one of her goals is to support other women and girls, striving for their very best through her mentoring services, and Belinda’s willingness to have a chat with anyone who needs some support.
Thank you Belinda for helping others to #BreakTheBias for Chinese born Australians, and for building hope for a world without bias.
