Last week we were delighted to welcome Rajinder Pryor for our second installment of ‘An audience with…’ organised by the Scotland hub. This was an event set up in collaboration with Women in Rail Scotland and we were thrilled to meet many new faces as well as welcome back familiar ones! The session was chaired by Diane Burke from Calmac and facilitated by Becki Cox from Glasgow University.
After a short introduction, the session followed a Q&A format where Rajinder shared about her professional journey, her role and thoughts about the transport industry and more generally about Diversity & Inclusion. The session concluded by some breakout rooms where attendees were able to discuss lessons learnt from the audience and network.
What became immediately apparent to anyone not familiar with Rajinder was her incredible enthusiasm and energy and we humbly recognize that no blog will give credit to the authenticity and ‘realness’ of the information shared with us during the session! Rajinder explained how she gets inspiration from people that aren’t here anymore but also people around her to help her look out and looking within her. She quoted Martin Luther King and Winston Churchill – and highlighted the role of male allies in her journey to give her space to grow, to give her strength and learn from.
Born in London and originally destined to her career in the retail and fashion industry, Rajinder’s career took a turn with the birth of her first daughter as she joined the railways where she has been making an fundamental contribution since then. Her passion for transport stems from the joy she gets in giving and in serving. One particular quote that stayed with me from Rajinder was that whilst we help getting people from A to B we don’t necessarily know the purposes of these journeys and the impact that each of these journeys can have on people.
Rajinder also highlighted the Covid crisis forces us to change, and change is something we need to welcome and embrace, that this is how we grow as an industry.
To conclude the session Rajinder shared a few tips with attendees. She said that the best way to encourage diversity in the industry is to simply not leave it and not think that we can’t take any more. Professional networks are where people can deliver and showcase their strengths and push themselves outside of their comfort zone. Rajinder also added that emotions are important, also in the workplace, and accepting vulnerability is part of being authentic as long as you give yourself a ‘time limit’.
Our special thanks to Rajinder for sharing her thoughts as well as our outstanding volunteers who organised, facilitated and chaired the session.
These are a few comments we and Rajinder received after the event:
‘The goosebumps bit for me was when Diane asked you, ‘what are you most proud of’ and you replied ‘just being me’. Loved it all.’
‘"I enjoyed this session and can't wait for the next one!’
If you weren’t able to join us on the day, we hope this blog gave you a glimpse of what our events are about. We have a Scotland hub LinkedIn group where you can engage with other members, in addition to our dedicated webpage.
We are always delighted to welcome new Women in Transport members, volunteers and partners. If you’d like to become a member, you can sign up to the network via the website here or contact us at scotland@womenintransport.com.