Women in Information and Communication

Deborah May is a Fulbright Scholar, with an MBA from the only business school in the world designed for women, Simmons School of Management, Boston.

She is passionately committed to advancing women and has specific expertise in developing women's leadership and creating diverse workplace cultures. Her interest in gender and diversity was sparked during her 10 year career with IBM when it was an issue yet to be addressed.

Deborah has been based in Canberra since 1998 and in that time has:

• worked as an executive coach to many senior women and their male colleagues
• developed and facilitated numerous women's leadership programs
• helped organisations develop more women-friendly, inclusive workplace cultures, and
• successfully managed her consulting practice in a way that keeps her teenage son fed, clothed and happily able to maintain his snow boarding and travel hobbies.

In November 2005 she was engaged as Women's Advocate by the ACT Department of Urban Services.

Deborah gave a talk entitled "Speak Up! Speak Out!" at the Feburary 2006 Hot Breakfast.

Deborah's talk discussed that women are notoriously poor at speaking up on behalf of themselves. This means we are prone to:

• avoid telling people about how good we are
• undervalue ourselves and our worth - and accept a lower salary than we deserve
• do more than our fair share of work
• focus on being nice/liked/good instead of respected and valued

Assertive communication ensures honest, open and collaborative relationships and is essential if we are to be respected and valued for our contribution. Too often internalised messages about how we "should" behave prevent us from saying what we think and contributing fully.

In her short interactive and entertaining presentation, she explored the impact of self beliefs on our ability to speak up and exhibit assertive behaviour so that we are valued, recognised and rewarded for our contributions.

More information on Deborah can be found at her website www.deborahmay.com