In honor and recognition of Women’s History Month, I wanted to write a post about my thoughts on women in the workplace. It’s not something I thought about too much, until my work placed me in a women’s leadership course. It made me think of a lot of things, actually.
My sister, who is an executive in her workplace, and I have discussed this a lot. It feels that sometimes women are more likely to attack then support other women – as if we were each other’s competition. Have you noticed that there’s the “good ol’ boys’ club” but women don’t have that? I’m not saying that women should automatically promote or include only women – but I definitely don’t think we should be sabotaging each other. I’ve been the subject myself of other women throwing me under the bus, or I hear women making other catty comments about women who are doing well in the workplace. To me, it’s women who are doing well that are helping blaze a path for the rest of us. My sister has someone at her workplace that will try to be nice to her face but resent her behind her back for promoting so well and quickly. Don’t get me wrong – I’m not perfect. I catch myself being gossipy too, but I’m trying to be better about it.
It’s hard for us. We tend to get underpaid – sometimes because we don’t ask for more or negotiate when getting jobs. Women also tend to go into professions that don’t pay as much – look at most nonprofits or public organizations, for example. This also has been exacerbated due to the pandemic – if somebody needs to help take care and teach the kids, it’ll be the one making less money. This will generally be the women – and it’s been shown that there’s been a huge loss of women in the workplace this year. My apologies, by the way, for not citing all my sources – I’m a bit too lazy for that.
It’s also seen in the language we use. We tend to use softer language in the workplace, which is good for interpersonal relationship development, but not good when we should be more assertive. And then, when we’re assertive, we could be called bossy or bitchy. Also, I realized something in an article I read – we call each other “girls”. Why? We’re not children or infantile. Guys don’t call each other “boys”. So now, I catch myself and try to use words like “ladies” or “gals”.
It’s funny – in that leadership class, we had a guest speaker who was VP of a region of a major chain (purposely not saying which one). She discussed how, in her career, she found it useful to be more conservative in her attire and other things – basically to fit in and not make waves. People were so upset that she would DARE say or advise that. I look at it from the perspective that she lived through a different time and was passing along advice she found worked for her. She had to deal with a lot of misogyny and issues so that we wouldn’t have to. But hey, what do I know.
Long, rambling post, in sum – think on and appreciate the women in your life and the women who trailblazed for us in the past so that we can be where we are. And realize that we have a LONG way to go – so we need to blaze a path for the ones following behind us.
Miuzing 