Thriving As A Woman In a Male-Dominated Industry: Christina Kumar On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman In a Male Dominated Industry

An Interview With Ming Zhao

Take Massive Action. Overthinking will not work. I won a Google for Entrepreneurs powered competition which involved creating a company in 54 hours. That took massive action and was impactful!

In the United States in 2022, fields such as Aircraft piloting, Agriculture, Architecture, Construction, Finance, and Information technology, are still male-dominated industries. For a woman who is working in a male-dominated environment, what exactly does it take to thrive and succeed? In this interview series, we are talking to successful women who work in a Male-Dominated Industry who can share their stories and experiences about navigating work and life as strong women in a male-dominated industry. As a part of this series, we had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Christina Kumar.

Christina Kumar is a featured journalist, award-winning entrepreneur, 6-time author/coauthor, International Partner at World Business Angels Investment Forum, and founder of Christina Kumar PR, a public relations firm. She has been awarded as a Top 10 Thought Leader in Public Relations by Thinkers360, which is the world’s largest and premier marketplace for B2B thought leaders and influencers.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your childhood “backstory”?

I had an interesting upbringing surrounded by entrepreneurship. Being born in California, I was around many different cultures which expanded my thinking and understanding of the world.

Can you tell us the story about what led you to this particular career path?

Yes, I have many interests and all these interests intersect in one way or another. I got into public relations because it is not a dull industry. Public relations involves communication, sales, management, and a host of other skills that makes this field exciting. It is also always changing and that is what I like about it.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?

Yes, I interviewed the inventor of the cell phone. He had made the first cell phone call on April 3, 1973 and considers it the birthday of the cellphone; April 3 just so happens to be my birthday… We shared a laugh on that.

You are a successful business leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?

The three-character traits would be:

Persistence — I think we all know how persistence is important. Most ideas take persistence to bring to completion.

Openness — To execute a new idea and be confident in doing it, we need openness.

Learner — It is important to always learn and grow. New things are always happening around us and we should be aware of this.

Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. Can you help articulate a few of the biggest obstacles or challenges you’ve had to overcome while working in a male-dominated industry?

I have had to prove my competence at times being a young woman and I have had to stay firm on my opinions.

Can you share a few of the things you have done to gain acceptance among your male peers and the general work community? What did your female co-workers do? Can you share some stories or examples?

Yes, listening and thoughtful feedback has helped with this. When I interviewed the co-founder of Square, I knew it would be a good opportunity to connect him with a podcaster that I know. It turned out to be a great connection and the podcast did well.

What do you think male-oriented organizations can do to enhance their recruiting efforts to attract more women?

I think having an environment where women feel respected and heard is important.

Ok thank you for all of that. Here is the main question of our interview. Based on your opinion and experience, what are the “Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman In a Male-Dominated Industry?” (Please share a story or example for each.)

1. Take Massive Action. Overthinking will not work. I won a Google for Entrepreneurs powered competition which involved creating a company in 54 hours. That took massive action and was impactful!
2. Confidence. Winning the competition took confidence throughout the journey.
3. Mentors. Having mentors can help avoid mistakes.
4. Mission. If you have a mission, you will get through the tough aspects.
5. Team. Have a team you get along with and also have complementary skills.

If you had a close woman friend who came to you with a choice of entering a field that is male-dominated or female-dominated, what would you advise her? Would you advise a woman friend to start a career in a field or industry that’s traditionally been mostly men? Can you explain what you mean?

I would advise her to do what she feels she should do. I would help her to weigh out the pros and cons of each and to figure out what would be the best for her.

Have you seen things change for women working in male-dominated industries, over the past ten years? How do you anticipate that it might improve in the future? Can you please explain what you mean?

Yes, I have seen things change for the better. In the future, I think it will improve. Since more women are speaking up, there has been changes being made for women working in male-dominated industries.

We are very blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.

Richard Branson; he knows how to create very interesting businesses and break records while doing it.

Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.

Thank you!