Driving change through effective allyship: insights from Carolyn Jawahar's journey

Carolyn Jawahar, Senior Manager in Internal Comms at Standard Chartered, spoke to myGwork about her journey into authentic allyship to the LGBTQ+ community. After witnessing homophobia first-hand at a young age, she made the decision to become the change she wishes to see.

Can you please introduce yourself and describe your role within your organization?

Hello, I’m Carol, and my pronouns are she/her. I work with Standard Chartered as a Senior Manager in Internal comms & the Graduate Program. I am also the D&I lead for my function, and part of both the Global & India Pride employee resource groups.

How, when and why did you decide to be an LGBTQ+ ally?

The moment of truth or my “Call to Action” happened during my MBA days. There was this really sweet, funny, and popular boy I had a huge crush on and when I finally worked up the courage to tell him about my feelings, couple of my classmates took it upon themselves to tell me he’s gay and slander him using the most derogatory and homophobic terms known to mankind.

I just stood there speechless and shocked; imagine getting to know you will never have a shot with your crush, and then immediately listening to him being verbally torn apart and mocked by his classmates & so-called friends. In a second, I went from having my heart broken to feeling horrified for the boy I blushed at every time he walked by. What made it worse was when I tried to talk to him about it, he just looked at me with eyes filled with resignation and asked, “What can we do about it?”

That’s when it hit me, what had I done about it? I had just stood there and listened in shocked silence at the horrific things being said about him; I couldn’t wrap my head around the fact that he was being targeted for being his true authentic self? Why should whom any of us choose to love matter? How does that affect us or put us down as a person? No one should be discriminated against for embracing their whole authentic self! And that’s when I decided, I will become the change I wish to see.

How do you think allies can be (more) vocal?

Making a change or creating an impact begins with integrating what you stand up for/ your beliefs into your everyday life. It must become a part of you, one cannot be a “9-5 Ally” and switch off your beliefs when you leave work. Every opportunity, every chance, every space you can leverage, you must put what you believe in on a pedestal and turn the spotlight on it.

I was given the wonderful opportunity of delivering a TEDx Talk recently, and I chose the topic of “Effective Allyship”. My talk titled “Cinderella, Glass Slippers, and if the shoe doesn’t fit don’t wear it”, delves into the importance of allyship, my personal journey and how each of us can make a change in our own unique ways.