These areas interest me due to my work experiences before
studying for my doctorate. I held various jobs (cleaning business, managed a bakery, volunteered as a teaching assistant in an elementary school, worked in customer and corporate services for a bank). In these work experiences I found that the manager who I reported to made a big difference to how I felt about my job and myself in general. I was curious to study what it was that differentiated leaders who created conditions where I was excited about work versus those where I felt disengaged and downright resentful in some cases! I also experienced what I now know as systemic discrimination (a policy that had a negative impact on my career progression actually was one that adversely affected women more so than men). At the time I thought I wasn’t progressing because of my skills (or lack thereof) which was not the case; this, in combination with my experience of divorce, and other experiences along the way, spurred my interested in studying gender issues in the workplace.