Catherine Harris, Freitan's regional manager, is an accomplished professional with a successful career in the freight sector, spanning various countries and regions. Throughout her journey, she has gathered valuable experience and insights that have contributed to her leadership in the industry.These are her ref lections:One of my first managers was a short, straight-talking woman from South London. Di Kenny was tough but fair, and able to hold her own managing a team running projects in the Middle and Far East. This was over 30 years ago, when as a young inexperienced graduate, I joined a project freight company hoping it would allow me to work overseas, and that I would not get bored. I have been fortunate on both counts.While I have never been consciously apprehensive about walking into a meeting where I may be the only woman, I am acutely aware that this feeling is not one shared by a great many other women in this industry. South Africa in particular brings with it other layers of complexity and sensitivity, of which gender is only one.When I look back, I have been fortunate to have had a series of supportive role models during my career. However, Di Kenny was and remains the only woman manager I have ever reported to in my entire logistics career. She proved to be an incredibly competent, collaborative and supportive manager. She was certainly a catalyst, showing me what potentially might be available to me if I was prepared to take a chance and do the work. Be bold when perhaps every fibre is telling you to sit down and be quiet. I recall when Di had been asked to visit one of the company projects in the Middle East. Nervously, she confided in me that she had never travelled overseas, and should she go? My answer was unequivocally yes, because if she turned down the invitation, I might be overlooked for a similar trip in the future. In the end, she did go and a year or so later, my turn came around. Looking back, it is hard to tell whether I would have had the same opportunities or put my hand up as readily if I had not had such a relatable mentor as Di Kenny.The landscape in the freight industry has changed radically since I started. Freight forwarding was not something you took a course in or studied in a textbook. Most of your knowledge came from learning on the job and from the colleagues you worked with. Training opportunities have improved greatly over the years, but the hands-on experience has proved to be invaluable. Technology has been and continues to be a major game changer in our industry. Also for women in the industry there has been change. Recently, a colleague of mine went on a tour of Cape Town port, which included a trip on a tugboat. The pilot of the tug happened to be a woman, something that we almost take for granted today, but this would certainly not have been the case a few years ago. What is without question is that women are capable of handling/managing jobs previously viewed as being typically held by men. The challenge is to attract/encourage women into these jobs and furthermore, ensure that they are able to stay. Enabling there to be more “Di Kennys” would certainly go some way to opening up new pathways and creating more balance.
