Shared recording

Women in Public Affairs: Breaking Invisible Barriers

SESSION-5 Women Public Affairs Breaking The Invisible Barriers.mp4 · 1:05:01 · 7 speakers

Download (1.1 GB) Anyone with this link can watch and download this recording.

Summary

The session examined why women in public affairs often progress strongly through mid-career but may not reach senior leadership roles at the same rate. Speaker 1 framed the discussion around access to decision-makers, visibility, networks, stakeholder relationships, and the distinction between mentoring and sponsorship.

Panelists identified invisible barriers including gender stereotyping, assumptions about women’s availability for demanding assignments or late hours, lack of access to senior leadership perspectives, and the predominance of male stakeholders in the policy environment. Speaker 3 also emphasized that self-doubt and difficulty owning one’s voice can compound structural barriers.

Speaker 2 argued that organizations and male allies must deliberately place women in high-visibility, operationally challenging roles and accommodate the realities of pregnancy, motherhood, and caregiving without treating those accommodations as favors. He stated that women should advance on merit and that inclusive support must be designed into leadership and hiring practices.

The discussion on networking emphasized building relationships internally across business functions and externally across the full stakeholder ecosystem, rather than only with senior officials. Speaker 3 highlighted that women need to show the cross-functional impact of their work, while another Speaker 3 stressed that confidence, subject expertise, demonstrated value, and relationships are central to professional credibility.

Audience participants described sponsorship as particularly valuable when sponsors advocate for women when they are not in the room, protect career momentum during caregiving responsibilities, and reduce the guilt associated with balancing work and family. Participants also raised the need to prepare women earlier in their careers to see themselves as strategic leaders and to strengthen support among women themselves.

Looking ahead, speakers expected sponsorship to become more formalized and continuous, caregiving to become more visibly shared, and women to participate more prominently in leadership forums. Speaker 2 called for deliberate, accelerated action rather than incremental progress. The session closed with a commitment to convene a further discussion before the next Annual Forum, potentially in November or December.

Key takeaways

Women’s advancement in public affairs is affected by structural access barriers, stereotyping, visibility gaps, and self-doubt—not capability alone.
Sponsorship differs from mentoring because sponsors actively advocate, create opportunities, and support women’s advancement when they are not present.
Organizations should deliberately assign women high-visibility operational work and accommodate caregiving needs as a normal part of workforce design.
Women were encouraged to build networks across internal functions and throughout the external stakeholder ecosystem.
Confidence, subject expertise, relationship-building, and the ability to own one’s voice were repeatedly identified as critical to progression.
PAVI will hold a follow-up discussion before the next Annual Forum rather than waiting for the following year.

Key moments

Session opening
Speaker 1 invited panel members to the stage.
Purpose and framing
Speaker 1 set out the discussion on why women may not progress from mid-career to senior public affairs leadership.
Stereotyping identified
Speaker 3 described implicit assumptions about women’s availability, caregiving, and suitability for major opportunities.
Call for organizational accommodation
Speaker 2 argued that caregiving and childbearing realities must be built into leadership and hiring practices.
Networking and visibility
The discussion shifted to building internal and external networks and gaining visibility.
Sponsorship discussion begins
Speaker 1 introduced mentoring versus sponsorship as a key career-development issue.
Audience opens up
Audience members shared practical experiences of sponsorship, early-career barriers, and working-parent guilt.
Five-year outlook
Panelists considered the likely future of women’s leadership, shared caregiving, and formal sponsorship.
Closing summary
Speaker 7 summarized networks, sponsorship, voice, experience, stretch opportunities, and confidence.
Follow-up commitment
Speaker 2 committed to seeking a further PAVI discussion before the next Annual Forum.

Decisions made

A further PAVI discussion on women in public affairs will be organized before the next Annual Forum. — Speaker 2
Speaker 2 explicitly stated that PAVI would not wait for the next Annual Forum and would request leadership to hold a standalone discussion in the near term.

Proposals & suggestions (not confirmed decisions)

Make the women-in-public-affairs discussion a main session rather than a parallel session at a future forum. — proposed by Speaker 2. Outcome: Speaker 2 said he would do everything possible to make it a main session; no formal decision was recorded.
Deliberately place more women in visible PAVI roles, including moderating sessions with secretaries, interviewing ministers, planning sessions, and participating in leadership. — proposed by Speaker 2. Outcome: Supported as a priority by Speaker 2; no formal decision was recorded.
Formalize and sustain sponsorship beyond time-bound organizational programs. — proposed by Speaker 3. Outcome: Speaker 1 said it was something that could clearly be seen five years from now; no formal decision was recorded.
Build stronger women’s networks and mutual support both within and outside organizations. — suggested by Speaker 1. Outcome: Presented as an audience perspective; no formal decision was recorded.

Action items

Action	Owner	Deadline	Time
Request PAVI leadership to convene a standalone follow-up session with a full discussion on the topic.	Speaker 2	November, December

Topics discussed

Opening and purpose of the session

to 00:05:56 Speaker 1, Speaker 2

Speaker 1 welcomed the panel and audience, introduced Virat, Anita Kumar, Natasha, and Afira, and set out the session’s focus: women’s progression from mid-career public affairs roles into senior leadership. The framing questions covered access, visibility, networks, opportunity, mentoring, and sponsorship.

Invisible barriers to women’s leadership progression

to 00:22:11 Speaker 1, Speaker 2, Speaker 3

Speakers discussed implicit stereotyping, assumptions about women’s family responsibilities, access to senior-level perspectives, male-dominated stakeholder environments, and allocation of high-visibility operational roles. Speaker 2 called for leaders to support caregiving realities without portraying this support as a favor.

Networking, external visibility, and confidence

to 00:30:19 Speaker 1, Speaker 3

The panel discussed building internal networks across functions, demonstrating public affairs impact, and building external relationships at every level of the stakeholder system. Speaker 3 emphasized women’s self-doubt and impostor feelings, encouraging women to recognize they have earned their place in professional settings.

Mentoring versus sponsorship

to 00:34:59 Speaker 1, Speaker 2

Speaker 1 introduced the distinction between mentoring and sponsorship. Speaker 2 characterized sponsorship as the more difficult practice of visibly and actively backing women’s advancement. He invited audience views on what effective sponsorship should entail.

Audience perspectives on sponsorship and career barriers

to 00:54:51 Speaker 1, Speaker 2, Speaker 3, Speaker 4, Speaker 5, Speaker 6, Speaker 7

Audience contributors discussed women supporting one another, advocates who speak positively about women when they are absent, early-career preparation, the pressure women feel when representing a minority in a room, career choices and comfort zones, empathetic leadership, and the guilt experienced by working mothers. Speakers responded by validating these concerns and stressing active sponsorship.

Five-year outlook and closing commitments

to 01:04:38 Speaker 1, Speaker 2, Speaker 3, Speaker 7

Panelists projected reduced guilt, more shared caregiving, formalized sponsorship, and stronger women’s leadership representation. Speaker 2 urged purposeful and rapid action rather than “baby steps.” Speaker 7 summarized key lessons, and Speaker 2 committed to a follow-up PAVI discussion before the next Annual Forum.

Important questions

Are there invisible barriers or unwritten rules that make women’s progression from capable public affairs professionals to senior leadership harder? — asked by Speaker 1
Answered Speakers cited implicit stereotyping, assumptions around caregiving and availability, limited access to leadership perspectives, male-dominated stakeholder environments, lack of visibility, and insufficient access to operationally demanding assignments.
Do women need to wait for access or walk in and assume access? — asked by Speaker 1
Answered Speaker 3 said it is a combination: individuals should demonstrate what they bring, while leaders and allies should make the effort to include them in rooms and conversations, even initially as observers.
How can women build networks that help them progress and become visible without constant self-promotion? — asked by Speaker 1
Answered Speaker 3 advised building internal relationships across all functions, demonstrating cross-functional impact, and building external stakeholder relationships from lower-level contacts through senior officials. Another Speaker 3 stressed confidence, expertise, and demonstrated value.
What do sponsors do, when are they important, and can women actively seek one? — asked by Speaker 1
Partially answered Speakers described sponsors as people who actively advocate, visibly back women, create opportunities, and speak positively about them when they are absent. The discussion did not provide a direct, definitive answer on how someone should formally request sponsorship.
What should ideal sponsorship look like? — asked by Speaker 2
Answered Audience members described sponsors as people who support career continuity during family responsibilities, do not penalize absence for caregiving, advocate for individuals when they are not in the room, create space to operate without guilt, and lead with empathy.
What will women’s progression look like five years from now? — asked by Speaker 1
Answered Panelists expected reduced guilt, more shared caregiving, continued sponsorship, formalized sponsorship practices, more women in leadership, and more deliberate organizational efforts to create opportunities.

Important numbers & facts

50% — Speaker 1 said women made up 50% of the forum’s delegates, described as the highest number of women delegates to date.
two decades — Speaker 1 said she had known Anita for two decades.
twenty odd years ago — Speaker 3 said she began her career approximately twenty-plus years earlier.
over two and a half decades — Speaker 2 described his career in policy as over two and a half decades.
47% — Speaker 2 referred to 47% representation in the profession, though the precise population being measured was not further defined.
70% — Speaker 2 said 70% of his team is women.
25 to 32 years — Speaker 2 identified this age range as a period when employers should plan for potential childbearing-related absence and support.
six, seven, eight months — Speaker 2 referred to women’s concern about being out of the workspace for this period during motherhood.
seventeen years — Speaker 1 referred to Anita as having spent about seventeen years in her career journey.
fifteen years — An audience participant said she had worked in corporate public policy for fifteen years.
since last ten years — The same audience participant said she had worked with Abbott for the last ten years.
10 cohorts — Speaker 6 said the Emerging Women’s Leadership Program had reached 10 cohorts.
22 — Speaker 7 said her son is 22 years old.
five years from now — Speaker 1 asked panelists to project women’s progression over the next five years.
November, December — Speaker 2 suggested holding the follow-up PAVI discussion in November or December.

Speaker highlights

Speaker 1

Main points

Moderated the discussion on barriers to women advancing from mid-career public affairs roles to leadership.
Framed the main themes as access, visibility, external stakeholder relationships, networks, mentoring, and sponsorship.
Highlighted that women may need access to rooms and conversations before they can meaningfully participate at the table.
Facilitated audience participation and closed the session with Speaker 7.

Positions

Believes women’s career barriers may be rooted more in access, opportunity, mentoring, and sponsorship than in capability.
Views sponsorship as distinct from mentoring because it involves advocacy from a business and leadership perspective.
Suggested that future sessions should examine whether women have achieved greater leadership progression.

Questions raised

Are there invisible barriers or unwritten rules that make leadership progression harder for women?
Do professionals wait for access, or should they assume and seek access?
How can women build networks and become visible without feeling they are constantly self-promoting?
What do sponsors do differently from mentors, and how can women find sponsors?

Speaker 2

Main points

Described patterns of women’s advancement across professions and identified public affairs as a field with rapid recent progress but continuing barriers.
Attributed barriers in public affairs partly to male-dominated government stakeholders, historically male professional networks, and assignment of high-visibility operational roles to men.
Called on leaders to accommodate pregnancy, motherhood, children’s illnesses, and caregiving as normal workforce realities.
Argued that women should be deliberately positioned in frontline operational roles, high-profile forums, and leadership opportunities.
Distinguished sponsorship from mentoring as active, visible advocacy and career backing.
Committed to pursuing a further PAVI discussion before the next Annual Forum.

Positions

Believes there should be no notion of “diversity hiring” where women have won roles and promotions on merit.
Believes organizations must make purposeful, designed interventions to accelerate women’s leadership progression rather than take “baby steps.”
Believes caregivers’ needs should be accommodated without framing support as a favor.
Believes PAVI has a responsibility to put more women into prominent speaking, moderating, planning, and leadership positions.

Commitments

Will request PAVI leadership to hold a standalone follow-up session in the near term, suggested for November or December, rather than waiting for the next Annual Forum.

Questions raised

What should ideal sponsorship look like from the perspective of women delegates?

Speaker 3

Main points

Identified implicit stereotyping of women—particularly assumptions about availability, parenting, and suitability for complex or demanding work—as a major invisible barrier.
Explained that mid-career public affairs professionals need access to organizational leadership perspectives in order to develop stronger policy positions and recommendations.
Advised women to build internal networks across all relevant functions and external networks at all stakeholder levels.
Stated that women may experience more self-doubt and impostor feelings and should recognize that they have earned their place in the room.
Emphasized that substantive expertise, demonstrated value, and professional relationships earn respect from external stakeholders.
Supported sustained sponsorship rather than short-term sponsorship programs and predicted a future with less guilt around career and caregiving decisions.

Positions

Supports male allies and broader gender-inclusive conversations rather than women-only discussion of gender barriers.
Believes women should enter professional settings with confidence that they deserve to be there.
Believes sponsorship should be ongoing and formalized, not limited to a short organizational program.
Believes work-life balance is not a daily 50–50 equilibrium; priorities will shift by day and circumstance.

Speaker 4

Main points

Questioned why the discussion was largely attended by women and argued that men also need to hear it.
Raised concern about the pipeline: how schools and early professional development encourage young women to see themselves as strategic builders and leaders.
Highlighted continuing practical barriers for women who take leave after childbirth, including reduced business opportunities and exclusion from late meetings or postings.

Positions

Believes the focus should include early-career preparation, not only mid-career barriers.
Believes structural constraints facing women after childbirth are real and require attention.

Questions raised

What are organizations and educators doing to help young women see themselves as builders, strategists, and leaders?
What are they doing for women in their twenties and early thirties, when career pressures are particularly acute?

Speaker 5

Main points

Described feeling pressure when she is the only woman or one of few young people in a room, leading her to overthink before speaking.
Suggested that women should avoid placing themselves on a pedestal as representatives of all women and instead allow themselves to make ordinary professional mistakes.

Positions

Believes women should feel able to speak without assuming they must represent all women in the room.
Believes making mistakes is a necessary part of learning and professional participation.

Speaker 6

Main points

Described mentoring women through the Emerging Women’s Leadership Program and discussed sponsorship as requiring both individual self-awareness and empathetic leadership.
Advised professionals to identify the career shifts they want, define their comfort zones, and consciously decide whether to move beyond them before seeking sponsorship.
Stated that leaders need empathy and inclusion, not only intelligence, to sponsor people effectively.

Positions

Believes part of sponsorship readiness comes from the individual defining their desired career direction.
Believes empathetic leadership is essential for effective sponsorship.
Said government employment felt comparatively equitable in her own experience, while recognizing substantial challenges for many women in government roles.

Questions raised

What are the three major shifts an individual wants to make in their career?
Is the individual comfortable being “almost” at a desired career level, or do they want to move beyond it?

Speaker 7

Main points

Shared that her son wrote about her as the person he admires most, which she presented as evidence that working mothers can positively influence the next generation.
Summarized the session’s themes: networks, mentorship, sponsorship, owning one’s voice, building knowledge and experience, taking on challenging projects, and confidence.
Thanked panelists, the moderator, women leaders, and male allies.

Positions

Believes successful working women provide constructive examples to the next generation of young men.
Encouraged public affairs professionals to stretch themselves, volunteer for frontline projects, and trust their ability to succeed.

Follow-ups

Organize the committed standalone PAVI follow-up session on women in public affairs and sponsorship. (Speaker 2)
Determine whether future PAVI programming will elevate this topic from a parallel session to a main session.
Consider how to create more visible PAVI leadership, speaking, moderation, and stakeholder-engagement opportunities for women.
Explore formal, ongoing sponsorship models rather than short-duration sponsorship programs.