My Gender Was A Big Challenge For Me As The First Female CEO— Lucy Quist

Former Airtel Ghana CEO Luci Quist has revealed how gender, was her greatest challenge in her exploring career in an interview with Asaase radio on Thursday October 24.

Lucy Quist, the author of “The Bold New Normal,” said gender remains an obstacle for women taking up positions of high authority in the telecommunications sector.

Speaking about her experience as the first Ghanaian woman to head a global telecom organization AitelTigo, Quist shared her bits of knowledge on her challenges.

Quist, who became CEO of Airtel Ghana Limited — now AirtelTigo — at 40 years old, at first thought her age would have been the greatest test she would experience in the job.

However, it was nowhere near that thought. Truth be told, she realized that her gender was the significant challenge.

“When I became the CEO of Airtel at the time, my personal biggest concern was my age,” Quist said. “I thought, ‘oh, people will say, she’s not that old.’ That was the only thing I was thinking about.”

“Everyone else, including the media; it was my gender. It was the gender that was the news; it wasn’t the age.”

In spite of the challenges, Quist shared how she moves toward these circumstances.

“When I step into an environment, I don’t think about myself first as a woman; I am a woman, but it’s one of the things I am,” she said.

“I know physically that’s the thing that people see immediately but you have to think of yourself in all the other guises of yourself; they’re all part of who you are.”

As the first Ghanaian woman to lead a significant telecom organization, Quist’s process was a demonstration of getting through obstructions.

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As the first Ghanaian woman to lead a major telecom company, Quist’s journey is a testament to breaking through barriers.

She served as CEO of Airtel Ghana Limited from 2014 to 2017, during which time she navigated the biases she encountered with resilience.

“I generally let myself that know if you have a predisposition against ladies or against somebody like me, it’s a result of your socialization; it’s not a result of whatever I have said or done,” she said.

“It’s your mind that has been created that way because of what you’ve been taught. So I always remind myself that, Lucy, someone else’s bias is not your problem.”

She continued, “The fact that you have a bias doesn’t mean I should carry it. I need to step forward and be the best of myself and then maybe it will influence your bias or become a data point, contributing to your understanding that you shouldn’t feel that way about women.”

“If you walk around embracing other people’s biases, you will never get anything done in this world.”

Credit: Asaase Radio