Bron Williams On The Power Within Women And Reinventing Your Professional Identity
Bron Williams is a formidable advocate for women operating out of their power. Despite notable achievements like an honours degree, being a school principal, an ordained minister, and assisting asylum seekers, societal and family expectations once stifled her.
Currently pursuing research PhD on bias and shame, she has collaborated with giants like Unilever, The Salvation Army, and Tennis Australia. A prolific writer, Bron has contributed to HRM, The Graduate Union, and authored two books. Her unique gift is simplifying complex ideas for her audience to readily understand.
She defies traditional notions of ageing and has reinvented her career not once but twice. Believing in the power of challenging deep-seated beliefs and the importance of leading even when unnoticed, Bron's passion lies in women initiating growth and change. She guides women to recognise their core motivations, encouraging them to reclaim their power, negotiate their worth, and unabashedly celebrate every achievement.
Bron discusses her research on the relationship between shame and bias, helping women discover their personal power and how you can reinvent your career to create an impact at any age.
Highlights from the interview (listen to the podcast for full details)
[Sarah Ripper] - To start off, could you share a bit about your background and what led you to where you are today?
[Bron Williams] - My hair is rather grey, so I've been around the sun quite a few times! Your background becomes extensive when you've lived a few decades, so I describe myself as being in the third act of my life. In my first act, I did the traditional things that were expected of me. I became a teacher (which I love doing), I'm naturally a teacher so that fitted well. I got married young, raised a family, and did all those things. Come mid-life, as happens to about 50 percent of relationships, mine broke up. I'd been trying to keep it together for about 15 years but was not happy. With my conservative Christian background, the idea of a divorce was almost like an unforgivable sin, so it took me a long time to reach the point where I left the relationship.
So began my second act, and I often describe myself as having run away from home because I then joined The Salvation Army, became an ordained minister, and did a degree. I grew up in Sydney, then the Southern Highlands with family and finally went down to Canberra. Then, I went to Nauru with The Salvation Army when the Offshore Processing Centre of Asylum Seekers was reopened there. It was a life changing experience working in that environment with incredibly marginalised and vulnerable people. I returned to Australia, moved to Melbourne with The Salvation Army, ended up in their editorial department down there and then turned 60. I figured it was time I did the third act of my life, because I wanted to follow my own agenda. As good as The Salvation Army is, there were things I wanted to do which I couldn't do within that organisation. The main one was professional speaking. In the last seven years, I've been speaking and writing.
My focus, and many people who have done anything entrepreneurial will understand this, iterates. It changes shape, starts as one thing, and ends up somewhere else. Where I've ended up is a result of all my life experiences and what I have learned through academics.
My current focus is to strengthen women by helping them rediscover and reconnect with their power. I have observed in myself, and I am still observing in young women this sense that they're being told to sit down, be quiet and not take up space. In believing that, and often in perpetuating it ourselves, we lose track of the power we have. That's my job now, to tell women they’ve got power, which is unique and amazing, so let me show you how to tap into it.
I absolutely love that matriarchal wisdom. I'm a firm believer in when a woman gets her menarche, it's when she is finding the concept of power. Through menstruating years, she is practicing power, and at menopause finding her power.
I love the fact you mentioned menopause. I did a podcast with two women all about menopause. I talk about menopause all the time, and having been through it I certainly understand my pathway was easy. I know a lot of women don't have it easy, and that's just awful. However, it is a portal into this third act, we get in touch with who we are because with our reproductive abilities gone, we're then just the essence of who we are.
Given your vast professional and life experience, can you tell us more about your current work and projects you’re engaged in?
A couple of years ago my business coach got me to write down the things I would like to do. When I did my degree in theology (because I was working with The Salvation Army at the time, I wondered if I could get a high enough grade point average to do Honours? I set myself that goal and then did my Honours when I returned from Nauru. Always in the back of my mind I wanted to do a PhD, because for me that's the pinnacle of academic learning. When I was a girl, there were not many women who pursued the academic path. A couple of years ago, I got back in touch with my supervisor for Honours, and here I am two years later into a six-year part time research project. My research is looking at the intersection of bias and shame. When I talk with people about this, they all instinctively know we have unconscious biases, quick thoughts we have where we pass judgment. We also know shame is somehow linked, and I thought getting that reaction encouraged me. As I've been doing further research, I am discovering when we become aware of a bias, similarly to as I did on Nauru. That was when I first became aware of my own racial biases. Having grown up in largely white Australia, I was confronted by all these people who were brown, black, and every other colour in between. They spoke all these different languages, were culturally different to me, and that challenged me. I now recognise I had this latent racism. That is not something nice; no one wants to discover something like that about yourself. Because of that, a sense of shame overflows you because this is not how you want to see yourself.
What I'm discovering is we can use shame as an indicator for a bias. If we feel shame in a situation, that can allow us to ask some questions. What's going on here? What things am I believing? What boundary have I overstepped for myself personally or culturally?
Particularly with women, and it's only through coaching and people asking the right questions I started to connect the dots myself, we know we're on the receiving end of biases. This includes gender bias particularly, but also ageism.
We recognise this, but also if we're honest, we also recognise that sometimes we perpetuate this for ourselves and others. Even I had to come to terms with it. Having grown up in Christian circles, all the voices of authority were men, and I privileged the voices of men. I had a bias towards what men were saying. As we as women recognise our biases, we will sometimes feel shame around our part in perpetuating stuff we don't like. But this is also a healthy point to come to because both bias and shame are showing us something about ourselves, we didn't know before. As we see these things, we can either hide, run away, deny, or in a sense step into our power and own this, because most of our biases we didn't learn deliberately. They've just filtered in during childhood and we've never questioned them. That's when we have power when we ask the question do I believe this? Does this align with my values? It's about utilising two things we so often see as negative, and as women particularly realise this is a point of power for us, to know ourselves better and then to change the things we can.
What powerful pathways do you see for people of all backgrounds?
I've often said the harder but better journey is the one within, and I am convinced we get a lifetime (however long that is) to get to know each other. There's a sense in which that is our primary task on Earth, to learn who we are and then act on that. That takes a long time, and what I see in my if it is contributing to the wholeness of people.
We can use these two tools of understanding bias, shame and how they interact to understand ourselves better. But also, we can then understand one another better and have insight into why someone else is behaving the way they do.
That won't stop us getting frustrated or angry, but it does help us have a broader compassionate perspective. I honestly believe the more individuals understand themselves better, then there's this radiation of energy which impacts the world.
What inspiring projects or initiatives have you come across recently creating a positive social change?
One that comes to mind is a woman by the name of Erin Gallagher. She's on LinkedIn, so I recommend your listeners connect with or follow her. Erin started a movement called #HypeWomen, and when I first came across Erin on LinkedIn this year, I didn’t know whether I was a hype woman. You get to a point in life where you're not “hype” as much quietly determined. However, her posts just kept popping up on my feed, and I started to get to know what was sitting behind her ideology. She is literally about supporting women, not just through a like or a comment on LinkedIn. She physically brings women together in big dinner groups, and she's based in Chicago, so her work is mainly in the U.S. However, her reach is across the globe. I find her encouraging and refreshing because she talks about women not competing. There's room in the world for all of us, even if there are 50 of us doing the same thing! She is super positive; she doesn't just do the hype highlight reels. She in a sense is a resource and inspiration to me, so I would recommend that to people. Follow her and see whether she resonates with you.
What books or resources would you recommend to our audience?
One I pulled off my bookshelf is called Breaking the Gender Code by Danielle Dobson. Danielle is a speaker/writer, and the subtitle of her book is How women can use what they already have to get what they actually want. She's an Australian writer and I recommend this book. Another writer many of your listeners will be familiar with is Adam Grant. I read his book Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know. Both books are easy to read and even have some pictures, so that's always helpful because it breaks up the text.
Any final words of wisdom you would like to share?
I thought of two different pieces of advice. For the women who are listening, however you turn up in the world, know deep inside you have power. Maybe you haven’t used it or you're wondering where it is, but just let me tell you that you have it and can tap into it. To the men, don't be threatened by the power of women. Women are not here to take over the world. We could if we wanted to, but we’re not here to take over the world because we're a collaborative species. We like to work together and want to work with men! We recognise men and women bring different energies, ideas, and perspectives to the table. Please don't be threatened by us. I will give a shout out to my husband, he's a man who's not threatened by me and that’s one of his most attractive qualities.
