Empowered women are pathfinders; they break societal barriers to pave the way for others. By pursuing education and building successful careers, they challenge traditional norms and inspire their communities. These pioneering women often become the first in their hometowns to defy expectations, demonstrating that gender should never limit one’s potential. Their achievements create a ripple effect, encouraging younger generations to dream bigger and strive for similar success.
One such woman is Aishwarya Taukari who is the first woman in her family to get a Master’s degree, the first woman to leave her hometown, build a career and move abroad for a better life. She is currently working as a consultant in New Zealand.
“Last week I became the first in my family to graduate with a Master’s degree. I am now confident that I won’t be the last. The youngest of 4 children. I am the first woman to leave my hometown, go to college, get a degree, build a career, go to office and move to a different country.”
After completing her school and college in Belgaum, Karnataka, she went on to study in MICA, Ahmedabad. She further went on to pursue another diploma from Xavier Institute of Communication, Mumbai. Once she moved abroad, she pursued her Master’s from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.
Her journey has been full of ups and downs and yet, it was a necessary one to tread to build the kind of life she wanted. Since a very young age, she has been swimming against the tide and going against the norm.
From playing cricket with the neighbourhood boys to ensuring her voice wasn’t soft in a room full of noise, from saying ‘no’ to an early marriage to leaving her hometown at 19 for an internship, she had to do a lot of things that were unheard of for women in her community.
Taking to LinkedIn, she wrote that she had “to leave home and move to the busiest metro within India at 21, study at one of the toughest communication schools even when many at home believed it was all too out of reach for small-town girlies, work at one of the largest PR firms, take 2.5 years of learn-acation, volunteer, be self-employed and live life on own terms, pack it all up and move to a different country, go back to university as a working woman with two jobs, and adapt, change, and re-invent in a new market.”
To overcome obstacles, she not only transformed her own life but also had to be resilient, proving that determination and ambition can break cycles of limitation.
“To be the first to do anything, anywhere is very scary. To be the first doesn’t mean to be perfect. It’s not an overnight journey that happens without any hiccups, wrong choices and U-turns. God knows I’ve made so MANY mistakes along the way. It simply means you’re taking tiny, incremental steps, day to day that often go unnoticed. It simply means to be crazy, and courageous enough to do what you want despite all the odds,” she wrote.
You may read her full post here.
Imagine the number of women in her hometown Aishwarya has managed to inspire, who shall now be brave enough to pave their own paths!