Supplied by Momentum
Charlotte Nsubuga-Mukasa is the powerhouse that brought you the dynamic #SheOwnsHerSuccess campaign over the August Women’s Month period. As Momentum’s Head of Brand Marketing she led the team that delivered a 3-day workshop series headlining Success speaker and New York Times best-selling author Luvvie Ajayi-Jones, as well as providing practical tools, advice and solutions to help get women onto the next step on their journey to success, as part of the campaign.
Charlotte is one of five women featured in Momentum’s Success Films (which also form part of the #SheOwnsHerSuccess campaign) that were broadcast on our social media platforms. She shares her own story about how she has overcome some of the barriers that have impacted her life.
“Growing up I would come across people who felt that I shouldn’t be engaging in certain topics because I’m a woman. They didn’t necessarily believe you needed to be married young, and they believe women should be educated, but they believed that there are topics for women and topics that only men should engage in,” she says. Charlotte says she has always struggled with cultural practices that she didn’t believe in and is grateful that her father was supportive of her progressive views and helped her push past these barriers.
“My dad would sit down with me and teach me mathematics in a way I found no other teacher did. Society fails women in so many ways, but having the right people behind you can make all the difference,” she says.
Not surprisingly, Charlotte has a degree in computer science and mathematical statistics and whilst making her way into the creative arts world, she faced structural barriers that she had to break through. “I found that the creatives didn’t always accommodate diversity in thinking. It was difficult to reconcile the creativity and the analytical and I had to do some work in order for my colleagues to realise that there’s a place for everybody and that we all have a seat at the table, irrespective of what we’ve studied,” she said.
The barriers women come up against are not just structural or cultural but sometimes personal and internalised. Grand slam tennis champion, Naomi Osaka, has not allowed her multi-racial and multicultural background to stop her from raising her voice and fighting against social inequity. At the last US Open, she wore seven face masks, each of them inscribed with the name of a different black American killed by police violence. She stands for something despite her mental health challenges which has spoken openly about.
The most decorated gymnast of her generation, that is 24-year-old Simone Biles of the United States made headlines when she pulled out of the US women’s gymnastics team final at the Tokyo Olympics to prioritise her mind and body.
It’s easy to be disheartened but Charlotte says part of the advancement of the #SheOwnsHerSuccess conversation is encouraging women to successfully navigate and overcome their barriers to success while acknowledging that it is okay not to be okay – because failure is but a stepping stone on your journey to success
“That is why I’m open to being challenged, I want to absorb the world and experience it fully, even if it means being challenged in my abilities and worldview,” she says.
This year, the Momentum #SheOwnsHerSuccess campaign extends beyond Women’s Month because a woman’s momentum doesn’t end after August. The journey is just the beginning. Momentum wishes to encourage women to keep their success in motion by sharpening their focus and refining business skills and passions all year round with the #SheOwnsHerSuccess resource centre with advice, tools, and continuous updates to keep women’s success unstoppable.
*Check out the latest edition of the Public Sector Leaders publication here.
For enquiries, regarding being profiled or showcased in the next edition of the Public Sector Leaders publication, please contact National Project Manager, Emlyn Dunn:
Telephone: 086 000 9590 | Mobile: 072 126 3962 | e-Mail: emlyn.dunn@topco.co.za