Women Are Difficult at Work?
Whenever I post something about gender issues someone will invariably feel compelled to tell me that they have worked with “difficult women“; that women don’t support each other, are ‘bitchy’ (hate that word) and that they once had a female boss who was awful.
Most of the time I resist the impulse to say “So what?”
For the purposes of clarification and so in future I can refer such folk (and it’s men and women equally) to this post, let me explain:
- wanting a fairer representation for women at work
- wanting to see women represented in serous news programmes
- wanting to see more women in senior positions
- wanting businesses to have more women on boards
- running a course for women who want to progress
- coaching women who want to progress in their careers
- wanting to see what women bring to the professional world is valued alongside the attributes of men
does NOT mean that I think women are better than men and infallible.
Women get it wrong sometimes.
Men get it wrong sometimes.
We are different and bring different gifts to the table. I want to see a world where we make space at the table for both and not run things so one half of the population has an advantage.
If you enjoyed this post, do take a look at A Feminist Paradox, and am happy to hear your views too!
Photo Credit: Nextia
Is the Glass Ceiling Women’s Fault?
Woah, steady on me! Am I now blaming women for centuries of discrimination? Adding to the guilt which we women are so good at carrying around? (Erica Jong- “Show me a woman who doesn’t feel guilty and I’ll show you a man”). Has it really been been our fault all along!
Well, no, of course not. But I am suggesting that maybe it’s time to examine what is going on in our heads and how much that is a barrier to our progress. Maybe we create some of our own limitations based on what we see around us and if we could free ourselves from that straitjacket we may find ourselves smashing that glass ceiling! Regardless of what is going on around us…
Women’s Strength
It takes some doing to cast off the images and impressions that we have grown up with. We’re in a kind of double bind; legislation has changed in our favour and most organisations at the very least pay lip service to the idea of gender equality, if not actively promote it. Yet there are still few women in senior positions and the role models are mainly male. The behaviour rewarded is generally male. Maybe we women look at those roles and think “I don’t want to be like that, that’s not my style, that’s not me”. That’s certainly true of a lot of the women I coach; what’s on offer doesn’t appeal and many of them end up running their own businesses or dropping out of the competition. (Sam Roddick is a great example of what I mean, see her interview with me here).
Grab the Opportunities
And there is research out there telling us that women are being hardest hit by the recession and that we are still underpaid in comparison to our male colleagues etc. All pretty dispiriting stuff. If we’re not careful we can be overwhelmed and begin to think that there is no point in trying. The truth is it’s not easy for any one, man or woman, to get to a senior position. Yes, I still believe it is harder for a woman for all sorts of reasons but it’s clearly not impossible and I think it’s eminently desirable. There is a lot on offer to help us, if we choose to take advantage of it, like the government saying it is considering imposing quotas for the number of women on British boards if there isn’t a change. What better time to try for a seat on the board! I’ve spoken with some recruitment companies who tell me that they are being asked to put more women on the shortlists they submit but are having trouble finding enough!
Be Honest
So take a few moments to reflect and ask yourself honestly, am I my biggest barrier to career advancement? And if you come up with a yes, you’re not alone. And I’m not having a go at you; there are good reasons why we feel as we do. Yet I know from my coaching of professional women that once we get our heads in the right place, it all becomes a lot easier. Have the confidence to just go for it!
“We are not touched so much by events themselves but by the view we choose to take of them” Epictetus. Choose a different view and the world could be your oyster!
And if you’d are interested in working one to one with me I have a few spaces becoming available this Spring and I’m also taking bookings for my March Speak Up course now!
Can a 10 Minute Mindfulness Exercise Make a Difference?
As January takes hold and the dark nights and bad weather overwhelm us, it’s easy to end up feeling a bit low. It’s peak time for illness, divorce, and depression….sigh.
Which is why it could be an excellent time to try out a simple mindfulness exercise which could give you a huge mood boost!
I have written before about the many benefits of mindfulness (see Mindfulness and Stress). There is a growing body of bona fide research demonstrating how mindfulness can help with all sorts of stress and depression. In Your Happiness Audit there is a link to a book I highly recommend which will give you some of the sources of that research if you’d like to know more.
But reading about it is one thing, hearing it another, so I’m really pleased to share this BBC link with you for a ten minute mindfulness exercise that it very easy to do and may just become a good habit for 2012. It was part of a happiness challenge the BBC were promoting last year and it’s perfect to do in a spare ten minutes when sitting at your desk. I frequently recommend this to women when coaching and we do a modified version on my women’s courses. It’s not for everyone but if it works for you you’ve discovered a great resource for life!
Here is the link to BBC Happiness/Health/Mindfulness.
Why not try it for just one week and see how you get on? And please do share your experiences with us!
Photo Credit: Tosaporn Boonyarangkul
Do Women Need Role Models?
There was a lot of debate just before Christmas about the lack of any women on the BBC Sports Personality of the Year (Read this from the Guardian by Jeanette Kwakye, a British Sprinter). Does it matter or is it just a case of women whining about nothing much?
I think it does matter and it matters a lot. It particularly matters to young women of any ethnicity if they never see anyone in the public eye of their gender or culture. In fact, it probably matters to society as a whole. We all need role models.
Research
A recent University of Massachusetts Amherst study found having academic contact with female professionals in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) can have positive influences on students—female students in particular. For girls and young women studying these subjects in school, being able to identify female role models helps them imagine themselves as STEM professionals. The role models enhance their perceptions of such careers and boost their confidence in studying such subjects.
Similarly there has been a lot of national angst about the lack of male teachers in primary schools and the desirability for young boys to have male role models. Because it matters to all of us. Seeing people like us achieving spurs us on to achieve for ourselves. The messages sent out by role models are strong and powerful.
Media
During the Christmas period I had one of those, have I woken up in the 1950s? moments. I was lying in bed, relishing not having to be anywhere in particular with BBC radio gently playing in the background (I am an addict). I wasn’t especially listening to the content, just the comforting voices of Justin Webb and Evan Davis, my favourite combination. After a while I realised that I hadn’t heard any female voices at all; not a presenter (they have 5 presenters and 1 is a woman), not forecasting the weather, and not as a contributor. Eventually of course a woman’s voice was heard but I think she was preceded by about an hour of men talking (Newsnight by the way, is generally much better at finding a more representative mix to talk on serious topics – kudos to them).
I tweeted the adorable Evan and asked about it. He replied that they had 2 guest editors coming up who were women, (they were good; I managed to be fully awake for them) but it isn’t really the point.
Similarly with other festive TV. Of the quizzes or comedy panels I watched some didn’t even manage to muster one token women and were totally male. Of those that did the men always outnumbered the women. Always. It’s very obvious in comedy (by the way, look out for an interview with Lynne Parker who runs Funny Women soon.) I can’t believe that the viewing public don’t think women are funny (thinking immediately of Ab Fab and Sarah Millican) or that there aren’t female comics out there available for panel shows!
So come on media folks, the BBC in particular. You are funded by the viewing public so do your best to represent ALL of the viewing public, particularly on serious current affairs programmes. I’m not saying every programme should have a 50/50 split, or that I don’t enjoy the male contributors, I do. But I do believe that our national broadcaster should make a huge effort to be representative. It matters, it really does matter.
If you enjoyed this post you may also like Women, where’s your ambition?
PS MY Twitter name is @JaneCWoods if you care to join in the discussions any time!
Girls Just Love Pink! And blue, and green, and yellow…
Later this week I am on a radio show talking about the type of marketing aimed at girls. To be precise, pink marketing aimed at girls; little sweet princess’ marketing aimed at girls. (I would tell you the story about my son and his beloved boy doll here but he’s 25 now and probably wouldn’t thank for me it!)
Suffice to say, I don’t believe this marketing strategy is good for boys or girls; it’s stifling and dull and lacking in imagination.
Research on Pink/Blue Gender Stuff
If you’d like to read some stuff from the grown ups on pinkiness, try this article from the Guardian newspaper, written after Hamleys the famous London toy store, changed it’s policy. This is the conclusion of that piece:
“There is no scientific evidence that boys prefer blue and girls prefer pink. Up until the early 20th century the trend was the opposite and baby boys were dressed in pink and girls in blue. There are also some – small – studies suggesting that adults of different cultures have different tastes in colours. It’s clear that colour preference is learnt rather than innate.
There is some evidence that boys are in some way hardwired to express an early interest in “rough and tumble” games and toys with moving parts and girls to prefer dolls and role-play games, but this is not conclusive because the studies are often in babies and small toddlers and therefore inevitably difficult to analyse. The differences that have been found are also often not very big. At two years, for example, 52.7% of girls in one study chose to look at a dolls face over a car, compared with 47.9%; not a huge variation.
Those who argue that there is some sort of genetic or hormonal trigger that sets a gender divide in toy preference cite studies that show that girls who are overexposed to male hormones in the womb are more likely to like “boys’ toys” and others that show monkeys of different sexes following similar patterns to children. This area is fiercely contested. However, even those who argue that there are innate factors emphasis that these are small and amplified by the characteristics children acquire from birth, which in turn differentiate and shape children’s brains so that boys’ and girls’ brains might well look different.”
Another useful website on this topic is Pink Stinks which campaigns vigorously against the gender stereotyping type of marketing aimed at children.
And for a child’s view on gender stereotyping this great little video from Riley says it all really! Enjoy and doesn’t it give you hope for the future! For Pink Stuff ( a rant from Riley against gender stereotyping) click this link!
What do YOU think on Pink?
PS. I actually LOVE pink as a colour, but I’m very glad I had my children when there was a range of colours to choose from – red, blue, yellow, green, sky blue pink, polka dots, lemon, azure, maroon, purple, tartan, stripes, dots……
Photo Credit: Madlyn
What Every Woman Needs to Know About Work
Welcome to my second post on the Catalyst research into how people get career advancement. It’s called the Myth of the Ideal Worker; in brief it says, even if women follow all the advice and conventional wisdom to advance their careers it seems it still doesn’t produce the same results as it does for men. (By the way, if this topic interests you take a look at my posts on Career Tips for Women)
Conventional Career Wisdom
Conventional wisdom imparted to ‘high potentials’ all coalesce into 9 main points, says Catalyst. They are:
- Actively seeks high profile assignments
- Rubs shoulders with influential leaders
- Communicates openly and directly about their career aspirations
- Seeks visibility for their accomplishments
- Lets their supervisor know of their skills and willingness to contribute
- Continually seeks out new opportunities
- learns the political landscape or unwritten rules of the company
- Isn’t afraid to ask for help
The research set out to see if these strategies really do get ‘high potentials’ to the top and if they work equally well for both men and women. What they discovered was that men benefit more from following the strategies given. Even when women follow all the strategies given above they got ahead less and had less pay. Although you’ll be pleased to hear that Catalyst thought it better than doing nothing at all!
Previous research from many sources, including Catalyst has dispelled the myth that women don’t progress in either salary or status because of lack of ambition (Pipeline’s Broken Promise). Catalyst made sure to get as representative a group as possible by looking at 3,345 ‘high potentials’ with same educational achievements , no career breaks etc.
Most Effective Strategies for Women
Of all the strategies listed above, only making their achievements known and gaining access to powerful others had the greatest impact on women’s career advancement. While changing jobs worked as a tactic for men in increasing salary, it seemed to have the opposite effect for women and changing jobs did not pay off for women.
Given what we know about women’s reluctance to blow their own trumpet this is significant.
In my next post I’ll be looking at some of the assumptions which may be talking place in organisations. Is this is a classic case of the business world has been designed to suit men? To heretically paraphrase Shakespeare,
“The fault dear Brutus, lies not in ourselves but in the way the way men have organised the world….”
Don’t forget I have a great new course on this Speak Up, when we’ll be taking a very in depth personal look at what research like this really means for you.
Photo Credit: Faahkir Rizvi
