IWD22 Adriana Rodriguez

International Women’s Day for me is a time to reflect and celebrate through inspirational life stories. And although there are still many things to work on like increasing women’s representation in various fields and organisational levels and closing the women’s wealth gap – to list few, looking back and celebrating what has been achieved fuels me with the optimism to address those challenges.

This year the focus is “breaking the bias” and for this I pledge to be more curious, to listen and learn more, and to slow down even for 5 seconds to allow me to consider other answers and perspectives to break my own biases.

This year is particularly special for me as I will be celebrating for the first time with my baby daughter, and I will be returning to work from maternity leave. I had the opportunity and support from colleagues and friends at Vattenfall to take 9 months to be a full time mum and now is the time to combine this new role with my old professional one. I am looking forward to working again with our teams and clients as our projects materialise and we get closer to a zero carbon future. I am excited and curious about how the new version of me at work will be: what remains and what changes, how do I make decisions, how do I prioritise, how do I lead my team. As part of a young team, I am also excited about supporting other colleagues as they embark in their own family journeys, without being forced to binary choose between work and family – and breaking the preconceptions of what a working mother is or is not.

This celebration always opens up the question of the most influential women in one’s life. This year in particular my answer is my mum. Now that I am a mother I am in complete awe of how she managed to raise 3 kids whilst working full time, in a city from her family and friends, whilst my dad worked 600km away from our hometown.