Let’s face it; women are not less #ambitious in their careers; however, gender bias does affect our advancement. In many cases, we hold ourselves back. The one area that I’ll focus on is seeking higher-level positions. According to research, for women to apply for a job, they must meet 100% of the criteria, while men usually apply after meeting about 60%. So, women must first realize when they are qualified and competitive for a position.
· In the U.S., candidates must meet 100% of the required qualifications and demonstrate that they can do 70% of the responsibilities to be highly competitive. You are competitive depending on the number of applications if you can demonstrate 60% of the duties.
Another #barrier women face is in the wording of a job advertisement. The fact is that institutional-level mechanisms exist that reinforce and perpetuate existing inequities. Gender words based on either masculine or feminine-themed words do have an effect. Male-dominated areas, such as stem, will use more masculine words (i.e., competitive, leader, champion, fearless, aggressive). In these cases, women were found to find these jobs less appealing. Women must challenge their assumptions in this case.
- A good technique challenges our assumption, i.e., leader, by exploring what that means to us and how we would see ourselves leading.
- A second technique is to replace these less appealing words with words that align with our assumptions, i.e., are we fearless, or can it be better stated as courageous?
A third area that can hold us back is doing work that doesn’t contribute to our promotion. We are often asked to take on tasks that may be helpful for workplace unity, i.e., birthday parties or organizing happy but takes away from the promotion-based tasks. If you are asked to do these assignments, examine their value before taking them on.
- Examine if you enjoy the activity, if it will provide exposure to senior leadership, and if it truly will help you understand the stakeholders in your organization. If it meets these criteria, take it on. If it doesn’t, but you enjoy doing it, remember to focus on the promotion-based tasks first and then the service tasks.
To get ahead, we need to start with ourselves, and as we move into leadership positions, we need to make changes in the system so these barriers don’t exist for women coming up behind us. If you have made it to the C-suite, examine the following:
1. How concise and clear is the promotion process? Is it communicated and outlined in the employee manual? Is it stated in performance management sessions?
2. Have you reviewed job descriptions to challenge the wording? Do you use these masculine terms equally between men and women when describing performance?
3. How are service assignments delegated? Are promotion-based tasks made
clear?
These are only a few of the barriers women face. What have you experienced, and how would you change it?
Career Solutions by Valerie 