Mentorship & Equity in Safety Leadership: The Women Who Lifted Me
- Anupama Mehrotra
- Oct 18, 2018
- 3 min read
Originally published October 2018. Sharing now as a reflection on identity, mentorship, equity and the legacy of women who made safety leadership possible for me.
I’m on a plane — again — to Chicago.
I’m headed to the very first Women’s Safety Summit, hosted by the WISE group of ASSP. My mentor was part of building this event from the ground up. She encouraged me to come, and now here I am — full of gratitude. And full of memory.
How Mentorship and Equity in Safety Leadership Changed My Path
👧🏽 When I Was a Girl, I Noticed
As a kid, I saw it.
Men got further. They held the power, the podiums, the titles. I didn’t want to be aligned with women, because I could see what it cost them. So I sought out men as leaders, as friends, as models for who I thought I wanted to become.
But what I was really experiencing was internalized oppression — a message carved into me by a sexist society that told me to be suspicious of my own kind.
🏫 Then Came the Shift
In college, I met mentors who didn’t look like the white, straight men I’d once idolized.
I found home in rooms filled with women of color, queer folks, nonbinary leaders — people who felt like future and truth and safety to me.
During my senior-year internship, I learned that you can work in a woman-led company… and still be supervised by a misogynist.
I was handed admin tasks. My male co-intern was taken onto the floor.
It wasn’t subtle. It didn’t need to be.
I eventually spoke up. I didn’t say the word sexism, but I did demand actual EHS work if my internship was going to count. A different coworker — one who had been through my program — took me under his wing. He worked me hard, taught me well, and helped me hit the requirements for graduation. But I had to ask. I had to demand.
👩🏽💼 The Women Who Lifted Me
My first boss in Michigan — a powerhouse woman doing it all: public health, parenthood, grad school. She enabled my success.
The HR Manager at my next job — who, though not my supervisor, became an advocate and safe haven. She helped me work through difficult conversations and celebrated my growth when others didn’t.
And now? I’m mentored by one of the founding members of WISE. With her guidance, I earned my ASP, my CSP, and advanced into a Plant Leadership reporting structure.
She also helped me see that I was underpaid — and helped me understand how to navigate that realization.
🙏🏽 The Line I Come From
Every woman I just mentioned — and many more I haven’t — made it possible for me to sit on this plane. To be going to this Summit. To believe in my future.
To believe in equity, and to build it.
I think of them — and of the women before them — who never got the same opportunities. And I hope that the work I’m a part of tomorrow will help make sure that some young brown girl never even knows that it could have been any other way.
2025 Reflection:
Looking back, this post still hits me in the chest. I see how clearly I was beginning to understand the systems around me—and the people who helped me navigate them. Today, I continue to fight for inclusive leadership structures, and I mentor others with the same fierceness and care that was given to me.
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