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Dr Pushpa Wood
Intro: Dr Pushpa Wood is an Indian immigrant, now living in Wellington. Dr Wood tells of how she came to live in New Zealand and the challenges she experienced, before enjoying success in her new home country.
My journey to New Zealand began in 1980 when I decided to marry my Kiwi husband and immigrate to New Zealand. As I was migrating without support from my family, I had quite a few reservations. Though it is customary for Indian woman to be well prepared to leave her maternal home and live with her husband and his family, it never occurred to me or my family that my ‘sasural’ (my husband’s house) will be so far away. I still remember my mother saying – ‘Oh dear, it is so far away. Even by plane it takes two days to get there. What happens if I am dying and you can’t make it in time?’
My biggest challenge came at a very early stage of my arrival when I started to look for a job. I learnt that I needed to justify my previous experience and qualifications. Although Indian experience mattered, it did not necessarily prove to be relevant to New Zealand. I had to learn to ‘sell' my skills which was a very foreign concept for me as I never had to do so in my home country. In India, I was told that my work and my achievements could speak for me. Almost 27 years in New Zealand, I still find the situation unchanged. Whether it is to apply for a promotion or another job, I still have to continue to ‘sell' my skills. After all these years, I am still uncomfortable with this.
I would rather sit down and share my dreams and discuss opportunities and how can things be achieved.
In my opinion, being an ethnic professional woman, brings its own challenges – we are not only fighting against the male prejudice, we also have to face the ‘majority’ prejudice as well. In other words, for women like us we have to be three times "better" than our male counterparts to get ahead.
I think the biggest challenge for us, ethnic women is to learn to be assertive without being ‘aggressive’. There is a fine balance between these two characteristics. I strongly feel that I should not have to give up my core principles to progress and give up my femininity to be taken seriously.
Story contributed by Dr Pushpa Wood
Edited by Berlinda Chin, Knowledge Coordinator, OEA