A Personal Story: Why I Showed Up at the Women in Business MBA Event - The Day Before Mother’s Day

Connecting with women who claim their space, their voice, and their bodies

Hello dear readers of MyLifeCoachingHub,

The day before Mother’s Day, I walked into the Women in Business MBA Event at Rotterdam University with one clear intention: to connect with other women.

Not just any women - women who are done waiting to be invited to the table. Women fighting every single day for their right to be equally heard in the boardroom, to be equally paid, and - perhaps most powerfully - to finally matter in the research that shapes how we understand the human body.

Because here’s the truth I’ve been carrying lately: How can we even talk about equality if men still don’t take us seriously enough to consider our anatomy?

That question stayed with me the entire day.

I wasn’t there to network in the traditional sense. I went because I needed to be in a room where women were daring to take up space - fully, unapologetically, and together. A colourful group of brilliant minds at different stages of their careers and lives, all showing up with the same quiet fire: the desire to belong, to contribute, to grow, and to be seen.

What I experienced wasn’t just another event. It felt like stepping into a living ecosystem (as Charlotte Lowther so beautifully put it) - not a cold network, but a supportive, breathing community where we lift each other higher.

Powerful voices echoed what so many of us feel:

- Irene Diaz Sole spoke about the deep freedom that comes when we finally own our choices without apology.  

- We explored self-compassion as the real starting point of growth.  

- We talked about seeing failure not as defeat, but as part of the journey — daring to sit in uncomfortable spaces, knowing our soft boundaries, and still showing up with vulnerability (kwetsbaarheid).  

- Liz Bates challenged us to stop waiting and “be a part of the challenge” — to rewrite our thinking so we become the drivers, not just passengers.

And then there was Samira Rafaela — former Member of the European Parliament and expert in Executive Reward & Equal Pay at PwC.

Samira didn’t just speak about boardroom equality and closing the gender pay gap. She brought something deeper that hit me straight in the chest: the urgent need to close the women’s health research gap.

Women spend about 25% more of their lives in poor health compared to men. Yet medical research has long treated the male body as the default. From preclinical studies using mostly male animals and cells, to clinical trials where women (especially pregnant women) have been underrepresented, the consequences are real: higher rates of misdiagnosis, delayed treatment, more adverse drug reactions, and years of unnecessary suffering.

Conditions that disproportionately affect women - endometriosis, PCOS, autoimmune diseases, menopause-related issues, and even heart disease (which often shows different symptoms in women) - remain under-researched and underfunded. Diagnostic delays for endometriosis average 7-10 years. Many medications are dosed based on male data. The economic cost is enormous, but the human cost is even greater.

Samira is also writing an upcoming book called “Let’s Talk About Our Bodies” (Dutch: Laten we over ons lichaam praten), to be published mid-2026 by Atlas Contact. It’s an urgent call to break the silence and taboos around women’s health — from menstruation to menopause, the uterus, hormones, and everything in between. The book gathers real women’s stories and demands that female bodies be finally taken seriously in science and society.

It was the perfect full-circle moment.

We fight for equal pay.  

We fight for seats at the boardroom table.  

But how can we claim true equality when the very science meant to keep us healthy still treats the male body as the default?

And that’s when I realised one thing:  

We do not need to fight for our rights.  

We need to claim them. To own them by nature.  

They were always ours. The real work is remembering that truth, stepping into it fully, and refusing to shrink or apologise for it anymore.

Sitting there, surrounded by women who refuse to shrink, I felt something shift inside me.

This is why I do what I do at My Life Coaching Hub.

Because women don’t need more permission.  

We need spaces where we are reminded of our power.  

We need communities that see us - fully, including our bodies, our ambitions, our boundaries, and our dreams.

So here’s my invitation to you, especially if you’re reading this in the glow of Mother’s Day or any day you’re balancing ambition with care:

Keep connecting.  

Keep claiming your space at the table - and demanding research that finally sees us.  

Keep choosing self-compassion as your foundation.  

Keep planting seeds… and keep taking up space with the quiet confidence that these rights are already yours by nature.

The ecosystem is growing.  

And every woman who shows up makes it stronger.

Lidija Poth

MylifeCoachingHub