By Elizabeth Herman | Posted: January 17, 2020
We see women in the workplace more frequently than in past decades, and yet statistics still show glaring inequalities between men and women. In the US, men hold 62% of the managerial positions compared to 38% for women. Rather than a ‘glass ceiling’ stopping females at the top of the corporate ladder, women find a ‘broken rung’ getting in their way earlier, at the first step up from entry level positions to manager.
Getting past that broken rung between entry level positions and managerial ones can be daunting. What can individual women do to help empower themselves to go beyond their current limitations at work? The following are 8 areas of focus that you can work on with your colleagues on a daily basis:
Create support networks
Groups on social media and in person can help alleviate women’s and men’s anxiety about working and success. For instance, I’ve been in a women’s entrepreneurship group on Facebook for several years, and I find that the simple act of sharing what we do helps immensely. It serves as a regular reminder that I’m not working alone while I try to build my client base for tutoring, editing and other services, and the others in my group value my participation. As Bianca Barratt suggests, “Empower your female coworkers by introducing them to the people who can help them access the resources and knowledge they need to grow and improve—these are the people who will inspire them to keep going when they are faced with the sadly likely scenario of being undervalued, undermined or overlooked.”
Have confidence
According to researcher Cameron Anderson, “Confidence matters just as much as competence.” He studied groups of students who displayed overconfidence in various ways, both non-verbally and in response to an objective test, and the students who became beloved and admired leaders in their groups were those who “genuinely believe they are good, and that self-belief comes across.” While this conclusion can feel frustrating to very competent women who lack confidence, it provides a lesson and a direction for working on one’s own self-esteem.
Use informal time to mentor women
A study of female and male executives recently showed that men show up early to meetings and stay afterwards for informal mentoring opportunities more often than their female counterparts. By using time to prepare others for meetings and debrief with them afterwards, women can bring their less experienced female colleagues into the fold, and learn to exchange notes and encourage confidence with crucial content to be covered. Although punctuality and getting back to work right away may seem more efficient, it cuts off opportunities for mutually supportive female relationships to occur. Using such time more wisely can allow for better mentoring and increase the parity between males and females at the top levels.
Help women at meetings
Studies show that a high level meeting of 10 people is likely to have 2 women or less in attendance. So during those rare opportunities for women to sit and talk in an official capacity with their co-workers, how you support each other can make a big difference. It can affect both the women’s attitudes towards each other and the men’s attitudes towards women. As Athira Nair asserts, ”United is the only way women can stand in male-dominated boardrooms.”
Cease rumination
Studies have shown that women in the workplace often engage in thinking too much about their own mistakes, often resulting in increased depression for this population. In other words, they ruminate too much on what they did wrong during the workday, going over and over every misstep in their minds. One researcher attributes this tendency to the fact that women “value relationships and thus devote a great deal of time and mental energy to processing the often-ambiguous content of them.” Recommendations for overcoming this habit include self-assessment techniques, gathering feedback, and timing your thoughts about any one particular problem, limiting your time to 5 minutes per issue.
Overcome perfectionism
Women’s insistence on perfection can often be a barrier to taking action on behalf of their own advancement. Compared to men, women had very similar results on a skills test in a study measuring students’ perceptions of their scientific ability. However, their understandings of their skills were very different, with women stating that they thought their capabilities would be lower than the men did by several percentage points. Afterwards, a much lower percentage of women compared to the men entered a science competition. These results seem to indicate that moving beyond perfectionism, overestimating your abilities, and the willingness to take up more opportunities show confidence, which in turn can lead to greater success.
In your own work life, there are many opportunities to take action for the empowerment of women colleagues, whether you are male or female. Around the world, the Art of Living Foundation sponsors many projects on behalf of women and girls. The upcoming International Women’s Conference in India is one example. By learning about and supporting such projects, you can make a difference for communities and families that rely on working women to both survive and thrive. Such positive action can create a more equitable and harmonious working environment for men and women both here in the US and abroad. As Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar says, “Women are the backbone of society.”
Elizabeth Herman writes, offers writing support to clients, teaches, and volunteers for a better world. She has a PhD in Rhetoric, Composition and Literature. Find her on Facebook or Twitter.
