“Ultimately, without exposing viewers of all ages, especially the young and adolescent, to diverse programming, we are stunting the growth of our society.” with Rita Kakati Shah

We are all influenced in some way by what we watch on television, whether in a movie or advertisement. Starting from childhood, watching Disney movies and cartoons with “princess” décor and a level of frailness for girls or “super hero” macho images for boys, has a great impact. This continues into the classroom, the peer group, and then becomes part of their norm. Ultimately, without exposing viewers of all ages, especially the young and adolescent, to diverse programming, we are stunting the growth of our society.

As a part of my series about leaders helping to make Film and TV more representative of the US population, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Rita Kakati Shah. Rita is an award-winning globally recognized gender, diversity, inclusion and career strategist, speaker and advisor to Fortune 500 companies. She is the Founder and CEO of Uma, an international platform empowering women returning to work. She has been featured as an expert on multiple international television and news shows, interviewed and quoted in various podcasts and publications, opined on many panel discussions and has vast speaking accolades. Rita is currently filming a new TV show for a prominent Indian TV channel to take the message of Uma and empowering women to a global audience. She interviews successful women in the South East Asian community that we can easily relate to. She tells their stories, asks them challenging questions and brings in audience and viewer participation to really question the status quo. She covers topics like career breaks, gender equality, entrepreneurship and diversity and inclusion to name a few, to open up previously closed dialogues. These topics are not typically spoken about on television, especially in South Asian homes. Through Uma’s platform for change, Rita is…