The omnipresent spirit of womanhood is unrestricted by a mere date on a calendar. And women of mettle express this quintessence in all that they perform. Including work in male-dominated industries. With Janet Lee, we reach beyond home boundaries and mark her success in the field of simulation technology, which her company represents.
Born in 1963 to Korean parents, who migrated to the US in their college days, Janet offers legal expertise in international technology, financial and intellectual property transactions, litigation and risk management at Ansys. She grew up in a vibrant science and technology environment at home as the youngest of the three children to a physicist father and a chemist mother. Ms. Lee is a Stanford Law School graduate along with degrees in Economics and Russian language from the University of Michigan, besides doing Master’s in Russian Studies from Harvard.
In her long career, she has faced various challenges, including those born out of gender discrimination. Initially she may have ‘avoided’ such issues, but now she is confident in her own skin to tackle them.
“As a professional, gender bias against you colours your choices as you move through your career. You would feel that you have to try twice as hard to gain visibility, to get the next promotion, or to find your voice,” she says.
On a recent business visit to India and China, Ms. Lee has found echoes of the thought: “There are more commonalities than differences in how glass ceilings treat women everywhere. It’s about learning how to advertise your impact on a job. But a great team is crucial for this.”
Right up there trying to nudge the glass ceiling is the time when a woman professional seeks the top slot in a company. “That’s when the glass ceiling is really tough. And if the decision is made in her favour then I think it is an epic moment,” she feels.
Ms. Lee has ‘mitigated’ limitations in her own career by taking risks. She has come across being judged against the ‘expected behaviour’ yardstick too. But the first thing that gets sacrificed is the emotional well-being. She observes that mostly it is the women who suppress their anxiety at work in an effort to achieve the work-life balance.
“When my daughter and son were small, my husband, who is also a lawyer, and I were working full time. We faced a combination of challenges – right from my maternity leave, availability of child care, to logistics of things – and the toughest part of my career revolved around that issue,” she remembers.
Ansys provides a work environment devoid of gender discrimination, she says. In her earlier jobs, the nature of challenges ranged from exclusive bonding of male colleagues to facing blatant rejection by clients to assist them only because of the gender.
“Many executives in the client’s company would be men and they would connect over sports to discuss business and build ‘trusted advisor’ sort of relationships. It surely puts women at a disadvantage. As a woman legal professional in an engineering company, which is mostly populated by male engineers, you are not seen critical to the company. So, I have to explain how a lawyer’s interaction with the customer in the automotive industry impacts the way he views the company. A client sometimes seeking to work with a male associate highlights the fact that the ‘two male’ combination is generally viewed as a more successful equation. Then there are those who will want to wine and dine you. All this shows how coloured peoples’ choices are,” she explains.
But what doesn’t break you, strengthens you. It not only holds true across geographies but owes itself to the fabulous women of mettle.