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Be ‘Femme Powered’ with Stacey Hines

Published:Sunday | March 26, 2023 | 1:11 AMDebra Edwards - Assistant Online and Lifestyle Editor
Attorney-at-law Deborah Newland, general manager, strategic services at Development Bank of Jamaica, was an inspiration to many at the Femme Brunch ‘n’ Learn Experience as she was candid about her life and work experience.
Attorney-at-law Deborah Newland, general manager, strategic services at Development Bank of Jamaica, was an inspiration to many at the Femme Brunch ‘n’ Learn Experience as she was candid about her life and work experience.
Founder and CEO of Style Phyle Global and Director of Bridge 99 FM, Syntyche Clarke, was collecting gems at the Femme Powered Brunch n Learn Experience.
Founder and CEO of Style Phyle Global and Director of Bridge 99 FM, Syntyche Clarke, was collecting gems at the Femme Powered Brunch n Learn Experience.

A jubilant Stacey Hines addresses the Femme Powered Brunch ‘n’ Learn Experience.
A jubilant Stacey Hines addresses the Femme Powered Brunch ‘n’ Learn Experience.
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To help professional women live, love, and lead holistically, the CEO of Epic Transformation, Stacey Hines, has curated Femme Powered, a framework and safe space that enables women to experience epic success and a deep sense of contentment in both their careers and personal life.

Throughout her life and career Hines, a breast cancer survivor and mom of three, tells The Sunday Gleaner she has been faced with numerous leadership choices and challenges, but thankfully through coaching and leadership development training that she has taken on and invested in, she now has the tools that have allowed her to create Femme Powered, for there to be conversations with women about women, that nobody else is having.

From a global standpoint she has recognised that there is now a focus in terms of training and support that companies are having around women’s empowerment, equity, and access to more opportunity, “but I was not seeing the support for the women in creating the skill sets that twill help them to not just achieve the access and next level success, but enable them to sustain it”, says Hines. Thus, Femme Powered was born.

The truth is organisations are primarily patriarchal in how they are structured and how the policies and procedures are managed. Coming out of the pandemic, Hines noted a significant increase in how women were struggling, overwhelmed, and burned out due to having to take on more responsibility. Homeschooling, cooking, cleaning, etcetera, and still holding down a nine-to-five. Some even gave up their jobs so that their partners could keep working and they could take care of the kids. But many of those challenges weren’t necessarily being discussed.

CHALLENGES

“From a local standpoint, there are instances where women are experiencing challenges due to high levels of unconscious bias or misogyny in an organisation,” says Hines. “Also, many women are very skilled but aren’t confident or empowered enough to take the next step because of the thoughts that they are processing.” Femme Powered covers all of these issues through four levels of mastery: Intention, power, presence, and resilience, giving females peace of mind and the skills to thrive.

Rocking her business casual best, a chic short suit complemented with a white shirt and kicks, Hines who is sporting a new cropped do commands the stage and has the women who are in attendance at the Femme Powered Brunch n Learn Experience, held last Wednesday at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel, listening keenly to what she has to say. They also participate and are open about their experiences and how they have manoeuvred, simultaneously helping and empowering others in the room.

During the session, the women discuss things related to both career and life success. Honing in on the leadership skills that are necessary to build successful careers and also speak to many of the nuances that are specific to women.

“Women have certain attributes about their physical and hormonal state that they carry to work with them every day, but they do not have the freedom to speak about these things in a way that they feel safe to be vulnerable. There are also many things that take place in a woman’s mind when it comes to taking risks, such as imposter syndrome, that they are not talking about or taught in their organisations,” says Hines. “These things are addressed with the intention of preparing them to be bold and have better communication and executive presence, which enables them to qualify for those positions at a senior level. Getting there and being able to sustain themselves when reaching there.”

Hines, who has been a tech sector leader for over 20 years, continues, “The way that females process and the challenges that we face such as body (physicality) and mindset are a lot different than our male counterparts. Women need the support to navigate their lives and Jamaica doesn’t often speak and or address gender issues. There isn’t a programme that adequately addresses the unique values or challenges of women. We see quite a bit of violence against women. Nobody addresses the boys club or the unconscious bias of over-speaking when a woman is trying to express herself. The salary gap. We don’t harness that data to show our women how they can take steps towards creating shifts in their favour.” And this is where Femme Powered steps in.

This shelter for female empowerment that Hines has created is both virtual and in-person, as she lets us know she is building a digital platform that will allow women to have access to the tools and resources even after they have engaged in person because “many times people go to these programmes and once it is over they are out there on their own”, but she aims to ensure that they have ongoing support through their digital community so that the success can be maintained in a way that keeps them healthy and helps them to ascend the career ladder.

For more information on Femme Powered follow @femmecaribbean

debra.edwards@gleanerjm.com