The Ladies’ Bridge of London

Here is something I was genuinely happy to witness last week while I was in London.

A little away from the iconic London Eye stands a bridge that looks almost too ordinary for the story it carries.

The Waterloo Bridge. Also known as the “Ladies’ Bridge”.

I had been itching to see this one.

During World War II, when most of the men were away fighting the war, women made up a significant part of the workforce that helped build the bridge. They did the welding, riveting, cement mixing, and all the other heavy work that went into building it.

Imagine doing all of this while your city is being bombed.

And yet, for decades, the contribution of these women remained largely unrecognised. The story was passed down by Thames riverboat pilots, while the people who could have acknowledged their work largely ignored it.

It was only when historian Dr. Christine Wall and filmmakers uncovered archival photographs from 1944 that the women's contribution received stronger historical evidence.

350 or so women. Building a bridge. During a war. And yet, their story took decades to receive the recognition it deserved.

I rode over this bridge a few times. I sailed underneath it several times as well. And every time I found myself on either side of it, I couldn't help but admire it a little more.

Not just because of the views it offers of London, but because of what it represents.

And then I came across something interesting.

There is a popular claim that Waterloo Bridge was completed ahead of schedule and under budget. I couldn't verify that claim well enough to confidently repeat it as fact.

But it got me thinking about something else.

What does the data say about women in leadership?

Well, quite a lot, actually.

Research has found that women-led businesses can perform as well as, and sometimes better than, their male-led counterparts. Studies on startups have also found that women-founded companies can generate more revenue relative to the funding they receive.

The exact numbers vary across studies, industries, and time periods. But the larger point is difficult to ignore.

Women are building businesses, leading organisations, making decisions, and delivering results.

And yet, we still have people who think giving women more opportunities somehow comes at the cost of men.

I have never quite understood this insecurity.

Why does someone else's success have to be a threat to your own?

A certain section of men seems to have a particularly hard time accepting the idea that women can be equally good, if not better, at the things they have traditionally considered their territory.

And instead of questioning their own assumptions, they question the women.

The qualifications. The capability. The leadership. Everything except the bias that made them doubt these women in the first place.

The irony is that the world doesn't become worse when women get more opportunities. We simply get to see what we were missing all along.

Of course, this isn't about women being better than men at everything. It is about not deciding someone's capability before they have even had a fair chance to demonstrate it.

The evidence from business, entrepreneurship, and leadership gives us plenty of reasons to stop making these assumptions.

And the Waterloo Bridge is a rather beautiful reminder of the same.

Sometimes, the people who help build the things we admire are the very people whose contributions we forget to acknowledge.

The next time you're in London, take a moment to look at the Waterloo Bridge.

And remember the women who helped build it.

Because apparently, women have been building bridges all along.

Some of us are just a little late in acknowledging it.

The waterloo Bridge often nicknamed as Ladies Bridge