Tea, Vadas, Work & Business Headlined our Power Breakfast in Chennai

A bright and sunny morning in Chennai brought together about 15 ladies together for an intimate round table discussion about life, work, empowerment, feminism and so much more. Doesn't sound like your average morning, does it? Conversations over tea and fantastic vadas between the most intellectual and hardworking women of the city was at the centre of the Power Breakfast hosted by Citibank and SheThePeople earlier this month.

The attendees? Deepa Jayakumar- VP at TAKE Solutions, Kadambari Satish- Founder of wedo.org, Shefali Dadabhoy - Co-Founder of Photo Concierge and Swarna Rajagopalan - a political scientist and founder of Pragnya , an NGO in the city and many others. We started off with introductions into the life and career of each of these women ( who are all so diverse!) from their journey into entrepreneurship to the ups and downs of corporate life. Shefali who has spent more than 15 years on the corporate end of the line took the plunge into starting her own enterprise and had quite a few tips to share. Kadambari on the other hand who is also a first time entrepreneur is a strong believer in the fact that the learning must never, ever stop!

Over the next hour, what transpired is a healthy and supremely engaging conversation around women in the workplace, their acceptance in positions in power, the importance of gender in the course of history and of course feminism! Are men easier to work with than men? While most on the table said it was indifferent in today's world, the learning here was that it sometimes women take things a little too much to heart and lack in practicality and pragmatism! Do you think so too? Tell  us in the comments!

Shefali Dadabhoy from SHE THE PEOPLE on Vimeo.

Deepa whose company- Take Solutions- recently won an award for excellence in mind share, market share and commitment share gave the ladies her story on how her company made a campaign and series around golf and throughout the course of the morning. The conversation turned to deeper topics such as the representation of women in electoral politics and the percentage of women participation in the field of politics as a serious career. Ms Swarna Rajagopalan shed some light on the current scenario of and would honestly like to see more women participate in the governance of the country.

All in all, the Power Breakfast edition in Chennai might have been small in number, but the insights and exchange of ideas were larger than life! Kudos to these independent women and their world changing spirit.