Roshni Walder knows all too well the experience of walking into a boardroom and feeling as though she has to work harder than others to prove her leadership capabilities.

While Roshni – the senior finance manager for Cartology, Woolworths Group’s retail media business – says she feels a strong sense of belonging at Woolworths Group, she notes she’s faced her share of challenges throughout her career in higher levels of the finance industry as a culturally and racially marginalised (CARM) woman.

“There have been moments where I’ve walked into a room and I am the only woman, the only brown woman or the only person below a certain age,” says Roshni, who was born in Mumbai, India, and migrated to Australia in 2004.

“I’ve worked with a lot of very senior leaders who are usually men of a certain age, of a certain demographic – and they have been great to me – but it is a very different conversation compared with someone who matches that demographic. I have found it is much harder to connect and break through.”

Roshni is delighted to be one of nine WWG women participating in the RISE Project, a collaborative program between Diversity Council of Australia, Settlement Services International and Chief Executive Women. The RISE Project aims to build pathways to leadership and career advancement opportunities for talented, ambitious and resilient CARM women.

Along with Nancy Chen, Manager, Mergers & Acquisitions at Woolworths Group; Jacqueline Huvanandana, Head of Data Science & Analytics Customer Identity & Personalisation – idX | WiQ;  Mahtab Masoudi, Implementation Manager – Integrated Solutions, Supply Chain, Primary Connect (pictured); and five other WWG women, Roshni wants to strive for more representation of culturally and racially diverse women in leadership positions across the 25 companies participating in RISE – and beyond.

“There are very few programs for CARM women – women like us, ” Roshni says.

“A lot of leadership programs are very focused on either gender or around certain leadership skills that are very male-orientated skills. 

“There are not many courses that actually talk about leveraging the strengths that we have as racially diverse women to help us on our leadership journey, things like soft skills, influencing skills, negotiation skills. 

“We negotiate in our everyday lives such as changing someone’s mind when you don’t look like the person they would normally talk to and knowing how to then bring them to your side. There has been no one there to formalise those skills and teach us and say, ‘This is how you can get there’.”

Roshni says she feels proud to work for an inclusive company such as Woolworths Group, an organisation committed to genuine change for – and validation of – CARM women of all career experience levels, as well as one that recognises their international experience, cultural capabilities, and multilingual abilities.

“In my entire career, this is the first time I have seen an organisation actually take the initiative to participate in a program like RISE and take the recommendations and implement them,” says Roshni. 

“Putting your hand out and open for that, as Woolworths Group has done, is a huge step forward.

“I am so proud of Woolworths Group for doing this and opening that opportunity up for not just women but diverse women like us.”

*The Diversity Council of Australia is credited with defining the term CARM to recognise the impact of race.