Procurement and supply chain leadership has long been a space where women remain underrepresented, not because of capability, but because of structural barriers, invisible biases, and a culture that often rewards confidence over competence. The conversation around gender equity in this field is growing, but it rarely goes beyond statistics and surface-level advice.
That changed in a recent episode of the Beyond Procurement podcast, where host Deepak Gawas sat down with Dr. Mona Golshan Sorour -Deputy General Manager of Procurement and Supply Chain at Burjeel Holdings, one of the UAE’s largest healthcare groups, and author of Call Me the B-Word. In an open, unguarded conversation, Dr. Mona spoke about the self-promotion gap, imposter syndrome, the “credibility tax” women pay just to be taken seriously, and why sponsorship matters far more than mentorship.
Below are the questions and Dr. Mona’s answers, exactly as she spoke them, because some truths land harder when they come in someone’s own words.
What are the real structural barriers women face getting into and staying in procurement and supply chain leadership roles?
It’s a very good question because I was also reading one study on the same thing which is called the self-promotion gap.
You know, most of the women try to apply for a role when they feel they are 100% qualified. But you know, for men, when they are 60%, they feel they are qualified, they apply for it. And they feel they are ready for that role. So, that hiccup or that sit back, which women sometimes feel they are not good enough yet to take that position, that is something we still feel in the industry.
And especially when it comes to procurement, because procurement is more of the back office. It’s strategic sourcing. They’ll support the systems between managing the vendor, the stakeholders, and working closely also with finance, because it’s all about savings, providing the best service to the entities and the vertical. So, they’re always in the back.
So, that visibility for them is also quite a challenge, to be seen and then to grow during this process.
When it comes to numbers, when it comes to analyses, you know women are more hesitant. I’ve heard many times that they say it’s not much of women’s think. You know that ‘women think’ concept sometimes even stuck with us. Maybe it’s not for us.
But I always say during the journey you do need to always follow the rule because you were not fit in this direction. No one was there before to experiment, to open the door for the rest of the women. But it’s about breaking it, because then the transformation happens. I’ve been myself also in places to be the first or only the woman, not because I want to say ‘yes, Mona is the only one there’, but it’s about to open the door that tomorrow anybody else wants to be there, or even for the leadership. Yes, we can have women in that.
So, it’s from both sides how much we trust our abilities and how much the organization does support us to elevate in that level.
“My journey overall was not about learning the rules. In fact, it was about how to break the rules to have a real transformation.”
Is this a bias women put on themselves, or is it a perception bias being created by people in organizations?
So, it’s very interesting because it also depends on the organization and the culture and how women look at themselves.
When I say sometimes, they don’t have the confidence, because you know, as per studies, 75% of women in executives, they suffer from imposter syndrome, which men will not be. And it is not like women; they don’t have the confidence. We need to ask why they feel it that way. And there, we give them the space to be.
There are women that they are very confident, they know they can do it. But let us be honest about this fact too, that how many women in the leadership or in finance must be, or at least when I deal with it, the percentage was very minimal, and most of the higher role with more of the analytics was covered or filled with men. Because even when you look at these hirings or in HR, the males were being tapped more as in hunting for such positions. I don’t know why, because we have not asked this question yet: why?
And once we look at it, it provides that environment that we push them to that level that you need to be visible, you can do it. Just because there was some frame or there was a kind of a process before which they didn’t have much of the ability, it’s not, and it’s a great thing which you mentioned that your mom will be a role model for many women to see that yes, it can be done.
And how many women in that position will be there or will do it, you know, it’s just open the door for the rest of the women that yes, it is possible. Because women will gradually give up.
I mean, many of the women, especially after they become mothers, they leave even their jobs because of the hassle or the challenge they will have to manage the work and the home. But there are again women which they don’t see it as a challenge but an opportunity, because women are multitaskers. They say, ‘I have the boss’, you always say women make a better manager because they’re better in multitasking.
So, that belief in themselves also will be there and the support. Because you know, it’s something with the women which, as I said, based on that study of imposter syndrome, we always think that we are not good enough, we will have that question on the back of our head. But how to help it to come over, and why we fall in that situation to feel this way, is also important, which helped the women to grow gradually.
Once a woman gets into a leadership role, does the imposter syndrome reduce or does it increase?
I should not generalize that it can be the same for every woman.
In general, it will be more challenging. Because women in the higher position, very low percentage, when they come to growth, even to move from one place to another and being promoted, they always have this regular tension with their male colleague that they will prefer the man to be more in a promotional stage than the female. And when they are there, the expectation is higher.
Because you know, I’ve observed that with some of my colleagues, even myself, when we go as a woman to that position, if it’s either no one was there before, or we got in a position which is more male dominant, it will be like: if some failure comes, it will be ‘women cannot do it.’ And that pressure somehow makes us ensure we are giving our best. So, this is one pressure which mainly the women might feel that they might be later questioned as the entire gender being the question mark if they can manage it.
And if they are doing it, I’ve seen when women are in leadership, they are the best when it comes to managing at that level. And there are always tensions and dilemmas.
They said, ‘when there is a nice woman, she cannot be a good leader, but the woman who is a good leader, she’s not always nice,’ because she easily gets tagged, she’s very aggressive, she’s very pushy, she’s bossy. But it will not be for the male.
I mean, there are biases that exist, as much as we want to ignore it. But there are things, if I’m strict with some kind of authority which I have, I will be labeled many things. But for men, they don’t have that. It passes for them much more easily compared to the woman. Because there are expectations from females as well, right? The way they should talk, the way they should look, what they should say. And once you break that, there is a question.
There is a term called a “credibility tax”, women having to prove themselves in ways male peers simply don’t. Has that been your experience in procurement?
Yes.
I mean, the credibility tax, I always felt it was one kind of high-interest loan given to women just to be in that room.
“We need to move from being available in the room to owning that building, basically.”
I’ve been to places which I might be the only one there, and there will be the questions as well. You know, they prefer a male kind of addition there than the woman.
But this is what we take as not a challenge but an opportunity. Because gradually we are making progress. Though it is small, it’s going small, but it’s today. And that’s important that we still say we have a place.
I was reading one research that it was saying like below 20% of the women who are in the CEO position or in a high-level position, and unfortunately, most of these percentage cover either they are the founders or it is hereditary from their fathers or mothers, I mean, the family kind of thing. So, it was not true corporate growth or stepwise to reach there. But I can see that kind of percentage is improving and there is progress happening. It’s not easy work. It’s a hard journey, but I’m sure we will reach there.
Listen to the full conversation with Dr. Mona Golshan Mona on the Beyond Procurement podcast.
Procurement demands tough decisions and tough conversations. When a woman is firm or direct, she risks being labelled. How do you tackle that?
It’s a very good question. If I want to take it personally, as me reply to it, I crossed that stage of being really worried about being called something, or being judged or tagged, because you cannot be in everyone’s good book.
And as I said initially that tension or that challenge of nice woman and aggressive woman, it will always be there. Because it’s not the organizations or the team which will be majority of the male, they’ll not seen the female instructing something to be done.
But I’ve seen once you establish a brand yourself, and you’re confident enough, and you manage it well, because in the end the work will expect you will have an interaction. How you manage it, and how you’ll not be only carried away or worried that you’re going to be called one, two, three, because in the end: Today it’s about results.
What is it you’re bringing to the table? You will not be asked if someone likes you or not likes you, because we are working all about numbers.
Managing the vendors and the stakeholders is very critical. It’s part of that strategy, in that strategic sourcing itself, and in the leadership as well.
Being rough or being firm can be taken as aggressive. But it’s important how you position it, how you take it, how you manage it. So, this is, I feel, the way it has to be, to look at it in that way.
Because I always say, hard work doesn’t have that much voice, especially when you are a female, it doesn’t have that much voice. But then about how you bring the impact and how you transform it, it makes it completely different journey for you.
Have you experienced moments in strategic meetings where your authority or knowledge was questioned specifically because of your gender? How did you handle it?
Yeah, it happens. I mean, usually when you are a female, you get underestimated also. And I always take it as a power of being underestimated, because when they think you might not have that knowledge, or you might not be knowing as much as they know, you will have an upper hand, because then once you present it and when you speak, people will be like, there is a moment of silence initially in that place.
And this underestimation can be from both sides, not only from internally when you are sitting with the leadership, even with your vendors. I was talking with one of my friends and she was like, ‘I got a call from a company, and they said that they would like to talk with the manager.’ And she said, ‘I’m the manager.’ ‘There is no, I won’t be, you are your manager?’ ‘I’m the one running this place.’
I mean there are situations like this, it’s quiet, we were laughing about it, but they consider it should be more of the male in authority. But then when you have a woman, it’s sometimes a surprise, because they underestimate it as well. So, it can be an opportunity for us to showcase what exactly we are capable of. So, I always take it positively in the other way.
“I take the power of being underestimated. When they think you might not know, you present, you speak, and there is a moment of silence in the room.”
Women are told they need a mentor. But is what they actually need a sponsor, someone who speaks for them in rooms they’re not in?
It is. It’s a very interesting discussion, because you need a mentor because you need to talk with someone to guide you, advise you, and direct you to the place. And you need also a sponsor to talk about you.
But I felt it’s more been over-mentored and under-sponsored.
Because mentorship, how important it is to shape you and guide you in a direction, but a sponsorship will take your hand and say, ‘okay, you now go through the ladder, go to do this work, get engaged with this.’
So, at those meetings which you are not there, and mainly the leaders which sit together, and there is an interesting project that comes, there is a challenge that comes, there is an opportunity comes, and when the manager says, ‘I can, she can do it.’ And it gives you the visibility, and your name comes also there so that if something is required to be managed, she will be doing it. So, this is very important.
I feel it should be promoted as a sponsorship. Because as I mentioned earlier, if you know, hard work is quite silent, it doesn’t have much more voice. So, to be heard as well, sponsorship plays a very important role.
There were projects which were managed by somebody else and then it was not going that well, and it came to my table ‘she can do it, so let her close it.’ So, these are the privileges which you will get. Okay, so there is a trust and there is sponsoring, ‘she can do it, let us engage’, and to be taking it from the male colleague to come to the female and closing it, it’s kind of fun. You take it as a victory that women can do it better, women can finish it, when it comes to that.
So, we advocate and just take the victory. Because coming from the team which we have less female, it gives them also the courage that we can do it, even if it is a very challenging situation. And so, it doesn’t matter of the gender to come in question. Because when we go home, we always suffer from that invisible second shift, right? And mainly the organization will feel, ‘okay, it might be so much, she cannot manage it.’ But how we just tackle it is also what shows the power of the leadership we carry in that. So I always look at it in that level.
“Women are over-mentored and under-sponsored. Mentorship guides you. Sponsorship says her name when the opportunity comes up and she’s not in the room.”
If you were advising a CEO, CHRO, or CPO who genuinely wants to increase women’s representation in procurement leadership, what should they fix first?
So, it’s great to have more females in the team, but why?
You know, I’ve seen many organizations, they will have a lot of activity for women just to, you know, kickbox their KPIs as an HR, but they’re really no impact. You will have more of the females, give them a place and position in the team, what’s next? Usually there is no clarity in their work journey.
This is what even me experienced when we were there, what’s next for us? If there is a requirement to skill up, rather than ‘okay, she doesn’t know this and that, let us equip her with this kind of training to be more efficient’ so to take more responsibility, in a better way to say. Are those going to happen?
Because just increasing the number of the female in your team for the sake of ‘we are more female dominant’ and ‘we are empowering the women’ and celebrate us once in a year and the next day we go to our desk, I mean, it happens, but they are not that touchable impact to see in the level. The struggle is the same.
So, adding more women to increase the struggle, of course, is not advisable. But if there is a plan for it, that sponsorship which we are talking about, of course mentorship should be there because we really need to talk, really to understand this, to be guided. There are situations which require more strategic mind or more experience to share with you.
If there is a plan and what is the next in the journey of the women in the team is clear, it’s a great thing to have. But if it’s not, it is just another, you know, KPI taken. ‘Okay, this is done.’ But as an aesthetic way of it, there is no change, no progress. And tomorrow you might see people resigning, and then you might hire men instead of that.
So how we are going to direct it is also important. How we are planning for it is also important. It should be with a purpose, with a plan for it.
I remember one of the managers also was saying, ‘I would like more women in my team, I support them so much. They can work from home as well. And if there is a situation, I won’t mind if they want to work three, four months from home.’ I mean, it’s nice to see the support, but you know, there’s a saying, out of sight, out of mind. I mean, they will not learn to be the leaders. They will not be engaged in those meetings in person to just grow in that thing.
“If there is no plan for the women already in your team, you are just adding to the struggle.”
You mentioned that what’s often missing is training for men, not just elevating women. Can you say more about that?
Yes. I mean, you touch a very interesting word, culture. I mean, I’ve seen places that culture is not developed in the level to have even the respect, or to know how to speak with the woman. I’ve gone through that experience that they don’t know even how to approach, or how to speak, or how to manage.
You know, I always say, we had a training, I remember, in one of the organizations it was for ‘women elevate.’ And I used to ask always, even in those classes: why ‘women elevate’? We don’t have any training for men to handle empowered women, but we want to elevate women.
But why?
And we always say, ‘women leadership.’ Why? I mean, leadership is leadership. It doesn’t have a gender. But when it comes to female, we ensure we emphasize it’s a female leadership, it’s about women. And that’s wrong.
I mean, we need to start to engage men, then how important, you know, to have that balance as well, and how they need to manage it. Because I’ve seen sometimes it comes as a threat. I’ve even been accused of being too ambitious. I was like, ‘Why not? Just because I’m a woman and I dream big, I want to be, I can’t be?’
And sometimes we have a man come and talk for us. And I’m like, why? I mean, there should be more women come to talk about their journey and the challenge. So let the men have a separate training, on how to make the environment and the organization more friendly for the women with the opportunity to grow. And we don’t look at them as a threat. We don’t call them ambitious. We don’t call them tough, or they are very bossy, or they are very difficult.
I mean if you were in our place, you would do the same action which we will be taking. So let it behave equally in that manner.
“Leadership has no gender. But the moment it involves a woman; we insist on calling it ‘women’s leadership.’ That itself is the problem.”
When you raised these issues with men and women around you, the perception bias, the need to train men alongside empowering women, what was the response? Did they agree?
About the topic of having more men in the thing, I highlighted it in the training event, but they will say, yes, it’s very interesting topic. And that’s it. There is no further progress.
You know, I feel as a woman, I never look for validation. And this is what usually kind of stops us from growing. For me, the advantage as a person was that my dad was in Navy, and my mom is a teacher. So, the level of discipline I grew up with was in such a way, you know, the work to get into the corporate was easier. But it’s not the same journey for the women. We are not coming from the same background.
But how much we believe ourselves, and how much we women support each other also to grow, it’s very important. It will not be taken by everyone positively and it will not be taken. It’s natural. It’s fine. It’s okay. I mean, not everyone should agree with your opinion. They can have the opinion. But how can we put all this together to gradually direct it in the right way, to hear from them.
The guy of mine said, no, women cannot go to this because they have other, I’ve been also in the places which they told me women are mainly fit for kitchen, because you know, they are in the end of the day they’ll end up there, why they want to be in the offices. And I was mentioning statistically, I mean, males are a better chef. I mean, if you see most of the restaurants, it’s men. So, it doesn’t mean that maybe they can do it there better than us being in the kitchen. We can change the place.
But it’s important to hear the opposite opinion. You don’t need everyone to agree with you. So, when you have an opposite or against opinion, it helps you to think better. If everything says yes, it’s fine, but someone says no, because one, two, three, you will look in a different direction. Okay, maybe some points are valid.
I mean, as a man, you will never be in an interview to be asked: okay, are you planning to have a baby? You will never be asked how many children you are planning to have. We will go through that. Or you will not be asked, okay, are you planning to, you know, I mean, a lot of challenges which will be questioned in an interview. If your husband is working, you know, you will never have these questions.
So, there are things which there is no argument about, which require to be changed, to be developed. And there are some opinions we can investigate that how we can evolve it in a better way for the women to have opportunity to grow. So, this is how I feel it will have the balance to take it in a better direction. As you say, it’s not an overnight thing, it’s a process. And a baby step also helps; small progress also is a victory.
“As a man, you will never be in an interview and asked: are you planning to have a baby? We will go through that. There is no argument, those things require to be changed.”
What mistakes do you see women make early in their procurement careers that hold them back?
Yeah, I feel mainly when women enter procurement, they’ll hesitate initially to take more responsibility, and they are always kept in the back office, more closely, and gradually it becomes a kind of a comfort space for them, that they will not explore more. But then that is the missed opportunity.
I feel it’s very important to be bold, to have a voice. It’s okay if you have an error. I always tell my team as well: talk, share. Even if you commit a murder, tell me. Because it’s important to know, if you don’t know the problem, you cannot solve or help them. So, to be bold, to be brave, to talk, to have a voice, to take initiation to do, don’t be scared. I mean, I know some people get worried that if some issue or error happens, because in procurement the error will immediately reflect. We should be very careful with it. But it’s also important to give them courage and psychological safety for them, the environment that they can talk to you openly, share with you openly.
Further she said, we reach to some level that I know the personal challenges, so I know how I can help, how they can put that thing. And I always say: keep your personal baggage outside the door and come here from a different perspective. Because this is your opportunity to grow, not only to learn, not only to be part of the organization, but have an impact.
I always insist on the same thing: you are not just an employee to come, punch in, punch out. As a woman, you should have an impact, you should add value. So that’s how you stand differently. So this is what I always try to advise, to avoid this mistake of just letting yourself be cornered. It’s okay. Have a voice.
What are the top three traits someone needs to master to succeed in procurement leadership?
We always talk about broken supply chains, broken procurement, but we never discuss the broken leadership.
Before we come to the processes and what all you need to know, I think the first important skill is leadership. How strategic you are, how agile you are, how resilient you are. Then it comes to number, because even how good you are with analytics, with the numbers, but you don’t know how to manage it, how to take the action, how to elevate your team, how to be agile to take the quick, right, and effective decision, it will still be a broken procurement.
So, I feel always the leadership comes first, and then you need to always scale up. I mean, I am forever-learning student, I try to learn each and everything, take the courses, learn from people, and I don’t care about their position or department because they always have something to teach you.
So always keep yourself updated, learn from this. And one more thing is negotiation, it plays a very important role. How you manage your vendors, how you manage your stakeholders, the numbers, the opportunity you look at it, how you make the challenge and convert it to the opportunity to work.
Further she said, I always monitor one thing with a team or in interviews: how frequently they use the word ‘problem.’ The more they use the word problem, I mean, they will never come with the solution. I’ve seen people who always say, ‘there is a challenge,’ because you will look into the solution for it.
And I always mention when there is something in the procurement or supply chain you don’t know, it always put one ‘yet’ in the end of it, ‘you don’t know yet’, because it will become a process of learning, understanding, and elevating.
And there is an interesting study from Professor Carol Dweck, she’s a Stanford professor for psychology. That is the power of mindset. That till you have that ‘yet’ there, you are always, it’s a process to be there. ‘I don’t know yet. I cannot do it yet.’ So, try to take it in a way that you will reach there. Make it a process. Because leadership is not something which has a manual or SOP, you will do one, two, three and you jump into leadership. But how much of the effort and impact during this process you do, it makes you a leader.
“We talk about broken supply chains and broken procurement. We never talk about broken leadership. Leadership comes first.”
If we spoke again in 2030, what one shift would tell you that procurement has made real progress on women in leadership?
I hope we catch up before that, not to wait for 2030.
But you know, it will be progress when you have more women in panel. It’s not like six men out of six and then there is the woman today, and you have more women, it’s a progress. And it should not be some news. Because you know, when you say, ‘there’s a female panel,’ it’s like an announcement, like some news. But it should be normal.
I mean, you have a woman in that, it should not be some kind of a, you know, ‘separate elevator we have, these things are there.’ It should be there. There should be a place for them to be there, as kind of a very normal thing, having more of the women, and it’s 50-50 rather than 20-80. And it’s progress.
And it’s important, you know, I’ve seen you guys being very much engaged in having more female empowering, and it’s a great initiative. I really appreciate that. But then when the number increases, we can say there is progress. As we always talk in number improvement, you should say, when the number is more, yes, there is progress.
“Progress is when a woman on a panel is no longer news. It should not be an announcement. It should be normal. 50-50, not 20-80.”
Tell us about your book Call Me the B-Word, what it covers, what inspired you to write it.
Well, when I was going through my journey and growing, I never had a mentor. I think my first boss when I joined the company here in UAE was kind of a mentor for me, to shape me and bring the importance of, you know, how women are powerful and how you can achieve more and it’s not a limitation in that form. But I didn’t have that in a level which now there are mentorships, sponsorships. We were not familiar with that term. And I wish I had someone to take me through.
And there are, you know, when I was sitting to write the book I was like, I don’t want to make those fancy words and things. But it’s a very filtered truth. Even one of my friends was telling me, ‘I’m still surprised you put so much of very direct facts which were still working.’ I was like, that’s how someone must voice it out to help.
Because no one said some of the challenges to me, it was the first time to go through it. And I was thinking, I hope I can be that mentor or that support for any other female who wants to go through this journey. What are the surprises might be there. But till then we hope that there is a change and progress that they might not need to go through that. But in case they face it, how do they do it?
And at the end of each chapter there’s a small exercise, so they can also put their thoughts, they can pause, they can reflect on seeing how they can take it forward. So it’s more of a personal journey with the help and being the mentor which many people might not have.
As of now, it is on all of Amazon, and India Amazon was the best seller, I was quite impressed that India moved faster. And it will be in UAE and planning on other platforms. And Kindle is also available because many people do not want the hard copy.
Conclusion
The challenges facing women in procurement leadership are not rooted in capability. They stem from visibility gaps, sponsorship deficits, outdated perceptions, and organizational structures that have been slow to evolve. As Dr. Mona Golshan Mona highlights throughout this conversation, meaningful progress happens when organizations move beyond awareness and create clear pathways for growth, recognition, and leadership.
At the same time, modern procurement teams need the right foundation to support that progress. When procurement data, processes, and decision-making are transparent and efficient, leaders spend less time navigating operational friction and more time driving strategic impact. At Powerweave, we help organizations strengthen that foundation through AI-powered procurement data management, governance, and workflow automation, enabling procurement professionals to focus on value creation, collaboration, and leadership.
The goal is not simply to create more women leaders in procurement. It is to build procurement organizations where leadership potential is recognized, supported, and empowered regardless of gender.
