Hi, my name is Melanie. I am a woman in her forties. I am a solo mum to two beautiful children under 5 and I work part time as the People and Culture Manager at Beck Legal.
If you had asked me when I was younger what my future life would look like in my forties, I probably would have said married with teenage children, still working in the Public Sector and be pretty old (because in my twenties the people in their forties seemed pretty old to me).
Well, life had other plans for me and I can tell you that the younger version of myself would never have imagined all the incredible adventures I would experience after moving from Regional Victoria to the “Big Smoke”, travelling the world, living in the UK, meeting the most amazing people and sharing the most incredible experiences. I have made so many wonderful memories.
Now, I did all of this whilst still building a career and what I realised as I progressed through my career was that I have a real passion for people. I am passionate about helping people be the best that they can be in their chosen field as well as being the best version of themselves. This personal drive led me to change from a “people manager” to a role in “people and culture” where my skill set and passion could be harnessed to make an impact and a difference in people’s lives.
Don’t be fooled by the term “career” … I never actually put my career first. I wasn’t overly ambitious, but I did naturally advance in my roles and suddenly found myself nearing forty. That self-expectation from my twenties and the image of what my life would be like in my forties could not be any further from my reality. A big part of that dream was having a family of my own which I did not want to miss that opportunity just because I hadn’t met my person yet.
How lucky am I, that I live in a time where women can take control of their lives in relation to having a family. At the age of 39 I took the extremely scary step of starting a family on my own and now have not one but two beautiful children. How marvellous is that technology? Look how far we have come where an independent and financially secure woman (with the most amazing family support) can have the children she has always dreamed of having? Now I know not everyone has the financial means or is able to go down this path, but for me this was just such an incredible opportunity to fulfill a lifelong dream. When I say I am “on my own”, I can tell you that without the support of wonderful family and friends that I have, I may not have taken this path at all.
After returning to work in a part-time capacity, I decided to leave my role to be closer to my family as I was not getting the work/life balance that I needed for myself and my kids. This brings me to where I am today at Beck Legal.
To be honest, I feel like I manifested this role! I had just resigned with no other job to go to but I knew what I needed.
- A job close to new home.
- The same salary as my Melbourne job as I could not live on less.
- Part time hours with the option working from home.
- A supportive and positive culture.
- A position where I could make a positive impact and work as part of a team.
You can imagine my surprise when this “unicorn” of a role appeared in the SEEK searches the day after I had resigned. 7 months later I’m living the dream. Ok, that’s probably a slight exaggeration but I really do love where I work. They are family friendly with a strong focus on work/life balance and I am enjoying the challenges the new position brings.
This year the International Women’s Day theme is “Invest in Women: Accelerate Progress” and the campaign is aimed to “‘Inspire Inclusion”.
I am in a privileged position in my current role at Beck Legal, with my life experience to educate and challenge the narrative and make a real difference, regardless of how small it might seem at the time. So here is how I am going to play my part to accelerate progress and inspire inclusion:
- I am going to keep having the hard conversations, pushing the boundaries and keep asking “why” when I do not understand and feel it is important to know.
- I will keep championing for inclusivity, diversity and equality in the workplace and try to remove the obstacles women may face in their desire not to do it all, but just to get equal opportunities to try.
- I will continue to lead by example and role model behaviour that I hope in some small way can make a difference for the next generation of men and women and in the process I hope to have a small hand in paving the way for some exceptional legal careers.
Really what I have been trying to say is; whilst I know we have a long way to go in respect to the equality of women, especially in the workforce, I am so thankful for how far we have come so that I can have my children, work part time in a job I really enjoy and work alongside some amazing people.
I am optimistic on what the future holds for me and the generations to come. We all play our part in change and sometimes you just have to get out of your comfort zone, learn from others and start the conversations because you just never know the difference you can make.