Women must work to preserve self-identity: Amruta Fadnavis

Mumbai, Oct 1: Women must continue their working and professional life even after childbirth to preserve their self-identity, Axis Bank Deputy Vice President and Corporate Head Amruta D. Fadnavis has said.

"You can give up a promotion or even take a break, but never give up your job... I got this inspiration from my mother, who is an ophthalmologist," said Fadnavis.

Addressing over 400 women corporate leaders at the CII-Indian Women Network's summit on 'WomeNation - The Power of Us' late on Friday, she spoke of her decision to continue working even after her husband became Chief Minister of Maharashtra in late 2014.

"It was in line with my ambition to maintain my independent identity... I have seen my mother, who continued to work all through," the professional banker explained.

Fadnavis pointed out that when speaking of empowering women and women's equality, "we have to set an example for our children to follow in life."

Corporate leader and Director of Thermax Ltd, Anu Aga said women must develop qualities like self-confidence, assertiveness and shed guilty feeling to become caring leaders.

"However, successful women are, they are unsure of themselves... Men will easily make claims, but women find it very difficult to speak about their genuine achievements," Aga pointed out

She called upon women to develop self-confidence in achieving goals without bragging and being assertive without being aggressive.

"I don't think aggressiveness is a good quality, but assertiveness is - very firmly say: 'Sorry, this will not be accepted' when doing things," Aga advised.

Her daughter and Chairperson of Thermax Ltd Meher Pudumjee discussed mother-daughter relationships and said how her mother (Anu Aga) was always a friend and her parents treated both their children - son and daughter - equally since childhood.

"For achieving success, one must define the success one wants to achieve, which could differ like money, power, relationships, family, etc. As soon as you find or define that, you will be at peace with yourself," Pudumjee said.