The directory
Women who have been there.
Pick what you are navigating and the list re-ranks by how much of it each mentor has actually lived. Whoever is online right now comes first, so you can start talking instead of waiting.
The directory
Pick what you are navigating and the list re-ranks by how much of it each mentor has actually lived. Whoever is online right now comes first, so you can start talking instead of waiting.
Organiser · Twenty-two years representing members
I have sat in several hundred disciplinary and grievance meetings. If you are in one, or heading for one, I can tell you how they actually run and what to bring with you.
Master electrician · Runs a 12-person crew
Twenty-one years in, I own the company and I still get asked to fetch the foreman. I can help you price a job so you stop underbidding, and handle a site where you are the only woman on it.
Clinical lead · Runs a 40-midwife unit
I run a unit where the work does not pause for anyone's confidence crisis. Good with rota politics, being the youngest person promoted over people who trained you, and shift work with small children at home.
Executive chef · Three kitchens, 80 staff
Professional kitchens run on shouting and I refuse to. It took me years to prove that a calm pass is a faster pass. Ask me about brigade politics, hours that eat your life, and running a kitchen your way.
Employment lawyer · Represents employees only
I only ever act for employees, never employers. I can explain what your contract really says, what a Kündigung means for you, and when a situation has stopped being a management problem and become a legal one.
Chief engineer · Twelve years at sea
Six weeks on, six weeks off, and for most of those years the only woman aboard. Ask me about isolated workplaces, rotational work with a family, and holding rank when it is not automatically given.
Producer · Funds and makes documentaries
Freelance for sixteen years, which means sixteen years of negotiating fees with no HR to appeal to. I will help you name a number and stop apologising for it.
Solar installer · Trains women into the trade
I have put around three hundred women through solar installation training. I know exactly where the drop-off points are and how to get past them, including the ones that are really about money at home.
Fintech co-founder · Second company
The first one failed and that is the more useful story. Ask me about winding down without shame, what investors actually think about a failed company, and starting again with a better cap table.
UX researcher · Former secondary teacher
Taught history for eleven years, then switched at 36. Career changers get told to 'leverage transferable skills' and no one explains what that means in a real interview. I will.
Master tailor · Third-generation atelier
Twenty-seven years and I still take apprentices. If you work with your hands and worry about what your body will be like at sixty, or about charging properly for craft, come and talk to me.
Head teacher · Manages 45 staff
I became a head at 34 and spent two years being called the deputy. Very useful on managing people older than you, and on the specific loneliness of being the one who decides.
Full professor · Runs a 20-person lab
Grant panels, authorship order, and the colleague who keeps putting himself second on your paper. I have fought all of it and won some. Also good on going back after maternity leave in a lab that did not wait.
DI · Twenty years, two of them on secondment
A career in an institution that was not designed for me, and I am still here and senior. Good on formal grievance processes, surviving a bad posting, and promotion boards that reward a style you do not have.
Principal architect · Founded her own studio
Left a large practice at 38 to start something with my name on the door. I can help you decide whether to leave, and be honest about what the first two years cost.
Executive coach · Former COO
Twenty years operating, six coaching. I am the person to talk to when you cannot tell whether the problem is the job, the company, or that you have outgrown both.
Winemaker · Took over the family estate
Inherited a vineyard that the neighbours assumed my brother would run. Good on family businesses, succession, and being underestimated by an entire industry for a decade.
Certified welder · Owns a fabrication shop
Started in a shipyard where the toilets had no lock. Now I hire the apprentices. Talk to me about certification routes, safety gear that actually fits, and buying your first machine.
Team lead · Child protection
High-stakes work, chronic understaffing, and a duty of care that does not switch off at six. If you are burning out in a caring profession and feel guilty about saying so, start here.
VP People · Former employment counsel
Spent a decade advising women through harassment investigations before moving to the other side of the table. I will tell you what HR can and cannot do for you, and what to write down starting today.
ATC · Trains new controllers
My job is being unambiguously in charge of people who cannot see me. If your problem is that you are not taken as the authority in the room, that is a skill and it can be taught.
Supply chain director · APAC region
I manage warehouses, ports and a lot of men who have been doing this for thirty years. Good on inheriting a team that did not choose you, and on being the youngest person in every negotiation.
Master carpenter · Bespoke furniture atelier
Took over a workshop that had been in a family for sixty years, none of them women. Good on Meisterprüfung, taking over an existing business, and clients who address every question to your male apprentice.
Chief of staff · Leadership pipeline coach
The gap that matters is not the ceiling, it is the first rung into management. I sit in the rooms where those promotions get decided, and I can tell you what is said about candidates who do not get them.
Structural engineer · Bridges and viaducts
I sign off structures that carry thousands of people. Contractors still ask whether I checked with someone. Good on technical authority, site presence, and being right in a way that lands.
Independent pharmacy owner · Two branches
Left a chain to open my own shop with a loan I nearly did not get. I can talk you through business plans that banks actually accept, and what it costs — in money and in nerves — to stop having a boss.
Engineering director · Meeting-room strategist
Went from IC to director in engineering orgs where I was routinely the only woman in the room. I am very specific about interruptions: what to say, in what tone, and what to do the second time it happens.
Floor manager · 200-person production line
I started on the line at 19 and I manage it now. If you came up through the floor and are now managing people you used to work beside, that shift is its own skill and I have done it.
Producer · Owns a commercial studio
Two per cent of producers are women and every session starts with someone assuming I am the singer. Good on technical credibility, freelance rates, and building a room people want to work in.
GPM · Returned after six years out
I stepped out for six years and came back at the level I left. It was not luck and it was not easy. I can help you write the story of a gap so it stops being the first thing anyone asks about.
Equity strategist · Women of colour leadership
The double bind is real and it is exhausting to name it every time. I work on what you actually do on a Tuesday afternoon when it happens, not on educating the room for free.
Restaurant owner · Head sommelier
Opened during a currency collapse, which teaches you things a business plan cannot. Good on hospitality margins, suppliers who quote you differently, and customers who ask for the sommelier while you pour.
Shift supervisor · 12 years on ambulances
First woman to supervise nights at my station. If you work somewhere physical where the crew tests you before they trust you, I have been through that and I know which battles are worth it.
Principal DS · Moved countries twice
Beirut, then Paris, then Berlin. I know what it takes to rebuild a professional network from zero in a language you are still learning, and how to get foreign qualifications taken seriously.
Compensation director · Pay-equity advocate
I have built the pay bands you are trying to negotiate against, at two Fortune 500s. I know what the number can actually move to and what your manager is allowed to say. Bring me your offer.
Depot manager · Former bus driver
Drove a route for seven years, run the depot now. Shift work, rosters, and the union all pass through me. Practical help if your workplace runs on seniority and you do not have it yet.
Plumber · Built a firm of six
I went self-employed at 28 with a van and a phone number. Six people work here now. I am blunt about money: what to charge, when to walk away from a customer, and how to survive the first slow winter.
Staff engineer · Chose the IC track on purpose
I turned down management twice and I am glad. If everyone is pushing you toward a people role you do not want, I can help you make the technical track a real, promotable path instead of a dead end.
Founder · Agricultural logistics, raised Series A
Pitched 94 investors before one said yes. I kept the notes. If you are raising and being asked questions the men in the room are not asked, I can help you prepare for exactly those.
Retrained into nursing at 42 · Now an NP
I sold insurance until I was 41. Retraining with a mortgage and two teenagers was the hardest thing I have done, and entirely possible. Ask me about funding, timelines, and being the oldest one on placement.