Overview

⏱️Schedule:  Doors 18:30 → Talk 19:00→ Q&A → Mingle
🌐Language: English

Answer the emails. Remember the birthdays. Keep the project moving. Stay professional. Be emotionally available. Don’t complain too much. Don’t fall behind. And somehow, make it all look effortless. For many women, “functioning” is more than simply getting things done. It can become a way of moving through the world, a deeply internalised expectation to cope, perform, anticipate, adapt, and keep going. 

Social psychologist Nilima Chowdhury argues that this constant functioning isn’t simply a personality trait. It is also shaped by the cultures and systems we live in. Social expectations become anchored in our emotions: in guilt when we say no, self-doubt when we succeed, perfectionism when mistakes feel dangerous, or the persistent feeling that we should somehow be doing more.

And sometimes, functioning works. Being prepared, agreeable, adaptable, and “always on” can help women navigate workplaces still shaped by gendered expectations and sexism. What looks like perfectionism from the outside may also be a strategy for being taken seriously, staying safe, or proving that you belong. But strategies that help us succeed can also become psychologically expensive.

In this lecture, we’ll explore how functioning becomes an identity, a cultural ideal, and a survival strategy — and what happens when the person who always manages can no longer keep managing. Why does competence so easily become an obligation? Why can slowing down produce guilt rather than relief? And what would it take to build alternatives that don’t simply teach women to become even better at coping?

What to expect:

• A thought-provoking journey through social psychology, gender, work, and the invisible cultural expectations that shape how we experience ourselves
• We’ll explore why “functioning” can feel completely natural even when it is culturally learned; how guilt, impostor feelings, and perfectionism reinforce expectations around femininity
• Why being constantly capable can become a survival strategy in gendered workplaces; and what the psychological costs of always being reliable, productive, and in control might be
• And, ultimately, we’ll ask a deceptively simple question: What happens when we stop treating endless functioning as the ideal?

Speaker

Nilima Chowdhury

Social Psychologist, Author & Science Communicator

Nilima Chowdhury is a social psychologist, author, and science communicator specialising in the interconnections between psyche and society. In her writings, lectures, and podcast In-Sayn, she explores how our cultural common sense shapes how we think, feel, and act. Often in ways that feel entirely personal, even when their roots are profoundly social.