Women have been breaking the glass ceiling in every profession in the last few years. Seema Harsha is a good example of this phenomenon. Four-and-a-half years ago, she decided to quit her job in Standard Chartered and started Indiassetz, a real estate advisory and portfolio management firm. “Because I come from banking, a sector which has few women in its leadership team, I didn’t really face any challenges when I transitioned to real estate, another sector with hardly any women in it,” Seema told Metrolife.
She has 15 women working in her company and five ‘very enterprising’ women in the leadership team. “Accepting women in real estate has been really amazing,” she said. With a clientele of more than 3000, it was inevitable that she faced a few challenges while the company grew. “Two things - managing money of a company and managing people. If these two are managed well, there’s no looking back,” she explained.
Seema has been a mentor for a lot of working women. She emphasised that for a woman to work, she needs to have a support system. “My in-laws are extremely supportive. It gives me comfort that there’s someone for my son when he gets back home,” she said. Seema feels that it’s a shame when women with great education coming from great colleges get stressed out by corporate culture and stop working. She has to put in many hours, it’s a high-stress job and suddenly the kid happens. Women find it difficult to juggle everything and quit.
What message does she have for working women or women who want to work, she answered, “In a span of three to five years, women should manage and cross the hurdle, saying, ‘this too shall pass and I don’t want to quit my job’.”