#WomensMonth | You make the space; don't wait for the industry to make space for you
Across functions as different as programmatic advertising and warehousing, airport media and human capital, a striking consistency emerges; these are women who did not wait for permission, did not wait to feel qualified and did not wait for the industry to make space for them.
They made the space. And many of them will tell you, without hesitation, that the making of it is what made them.
Confidence usually follows action
Few people in the business have a broader view of what Provantage is and where it is going than Tanya Van Tonder, group head of marketing.
She will tell you that confidence usually follows action rather than preceding it.
This is something she has lived through: leadership roles she accepted before she felt ready and a career that has consistently moved forward by stepping into discomfort rather than waiting for certainty to arrive first.
"The biggest risk has probably been saying yes to opportunities before I felt completely ready.
“If I could give my younger self advice, it would be to trust my judgement sooner. We often wait until we feel qualified, when in reality growth happens because we're willing to step into challenges before we're completely comfortable.
"I've also learnt that if you invest in capable people, clear expectations and trust, you don't lose control but rather gain capacity.
“That's allowed me to spend more time thinking strategically instead of simply reacting."
Credibility is built
For Adele Williams, head of sales at Airport Ads, that work has always been grounded in one principle: your reputation is your greatest asset.
"Confidence grows through experience, and leadership is earned through trust. I focused on being well prepared, understanding my clients' businesses and consistently delivering on my commitments. Over time, credibility speaks louder than assumptions."
Lorette Davids, group financial manager, echoes that.
In finance, she has learned that authority is accumulated; it comes from consistently delivering quality work, understanding the numbers and being prepared. Her advice to every young woman entering the profession is unambiguous: Believe that you belong at the table.
Delia Conde, head of sales strategy and reporting, believes visibility requires a conscious shift, from assuming good work will be noticed to ensuring her thinking is part of the conversation.
"I try to measure my contribution by the outcome, not by applause. If the goal is hit, that feels like a win to me whether my name is attached to it or not."
Not built for you
Operations and logistics are environments where women have historically been the exception.
Vinette Scott, national operations manager, and Leeanne Soobramoney, general manager of client services at POP Warehouse, have both spent careers succeeding in that world and actively shifting the terms of who belongs in it.
Soobramoney, who has worked across every layer of the supply chain over two decades, says, "I view myself as a business leader who happens to be a woman, rather than a woman who works in a male-dominated industry."
Her counsel to young women being told operations is not for them is equally direct.
"Don't focus on proving people wrong. Focus on becoming exceptionally good at what you do."
Scott leads a team of seven women in key operational leadership roles; a fact she describes as one of the most rewarding of her career.
"Operational excellence has no gender," she says simply. For both women, the argument is made with track records.
Thandekile Mosepele, general manager of operations for the MTN account, speaks to the particular weight of leading in high-visibility, high-stakes environments.
"Every barrier I overcome helps create opportunities for other women to step into leadership with greater confidence."
Her hope for her legacy lives in people developed.
"If there are leaders who say I believed in them before they believed in themselves, that will be one of my greatest achievements."
The sales floor, the strategy table and everything in between
In sales, the qualities women bring are still underestimated by some and turned into quiet competitive advantages by those paying attention.
Antoinette Abrahams, account executive at Mall Ads, describes a confidence built from accumulated experience.
"Confidence isn't about having all the answers. It's about believing in the value you bring and being willing to keep showing up."
Karen Franklin, national sales manager at H+A, carries the revenue target for an entire division and manages that pressure by distributing it across a team that, as she notes with some satisfaction, all happen to be women.
When a health emergency took her offline for two weeks at the peak of the biggest quarter in the division's history, the team delivered anyway.
My forced absence actually created the space for my team to step up, take ownership, and absolutely thrive — a lesson in what real leadership development looks like."
Carmen Brown, general manager of Field Force, who manages one of Provantage's largest distributed teams, has a hard-won philosophy.
"You find your style by putting yourself out there and doing it, not by preparing for it. The experience is the teacher."
She is also candid about where women themselves can do better.
"We don't support each other enough. We should be championing one another and creating our own culture of mentoring."
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Thinking differently, leading differently
Jorja Wilkins, programmatic and ESG lead, sits at an unusual intersection that she has grown into through a career including a PhD exploring how leaders shape organisational sustainability.
She has thought carefully about what the industry still gets wrong on gender.
"There's a difference between being represented and being trusted with risk. It's easier to put a woman on a panel or in a visible role than it is to hand her a transformation project that might fail publicly, with a budget and a deadline attached. That second kind of trust is the one that actually builds careers."
It is perhaps the most precise articulation of what separates genuine inclusion from its performance.
