ChimeHers chimes in: The role of women role models
“I decided to study engineering because of her,” says Jessica Schein of her high school mathematics teacher. “She was really supportive of my interests,” she explains. “I credit a lot of my pursuit of math and the sciences to her encouragement.”
Jessica’s teacher went on to become the head of the math department and then principal of the school. Even though those things happened after Jessica had already graduated, knowing that a female role model had progressed through her career in that way had an impact on Jessica. “Her support and professional journey made the path I wanted to follow seem attainable,” she says.
For Grace Hayes-Larson, a strong female role model came in the form of a close family friend, Joan, who was also a coworker of her dad’s. “Joan was the only woman working in his department and she always set the example that you can do anything as a woman,” Grace explains. She remembers doing science projects — not arts and crafts — at Joan’s house, like making her own ice cream in a soccer ball. “At the time, I didn’t really think of her as a role model, but as someone who made all activities accessible to us girls,” says Grace. “As a result, I’ve always pursued what I want regardless of who it’s been intended for — men or women.”
Joan has continued to set an example for Grace, moving cross-country to pursue a career move, negotiating for better working conditions, and more. As Grace has progressed in her own career, Joan has become a sounding board and source of candid advice. “She always told me to seek opportunities for myself and expect the best. She advised me not to put my energy into things that wouldn’t return the investment, to work hard, and proactively pursue growth.”
For Kendra Boccelli and Alyssa Nickow, female role models came from being in female-dominated fields. Kendra has been in the PR industry for over twenty years and worked with many founders, clients and mentors who are female. “I feel fortunate to have been surrounded by women early on in my career,” Kendra says. “They set the example, showed me the possibilities, and helped me imagine what my life might look like if I chose to have a family AND grow my professional pursuits.”
Alyssa, though she started out interested in math and science, moved into education when her classes became dominated by men. “I made the decision to study the social sciences because I wanted to be around more women.” She worked in education for over ten years of her career and then found her way back to the STEM field. “Working in education, I saw so many examples of women who were really good at talking to young people about following their passions, regardless of gender biases,” she says. “I started to internalize those messages and figured out my path back to STEM — thanks to those women I worked with in the education space.”
Why role models matter
Research shows that it’s easier for us to learn behaviors by observing rather than experiencing the consequences of our own choices. As our identities start to form in adolescence, we’re especially likely to identify people we want to be like — role models. Those role models, it turns out, have a huge impact on our lives: positive role models are proven to lead to positive outcomes for adolescents, from their health to behavior and achievement levels.
What’s more, having a role model who looks like us — whether that’s racially, ethnically, or from a gender perspective — can impact the influence they have on our lives. So not only do role models matter to contribute to positive outcomes but having role models who share parts of our identity matters, too.
For Grace, this aligns with her personal experience: “As a woman, you might have a male role model, but you will never have a male role model who has lived the exact same experience as you,” she says. “I’ve had male role models but I’ve never connected with them on the same experiential level as my female role models, so ultimately the impact of female role models in my life has been greater.”
Some women’s first female role model comes in the form of their mother — a role many women play. Jessica cites her mom as an important influence in her life. “She had a career and the dynamic that created, the example it set for me, deeply influenced my decisions later on,” she says.
Modeling roles: Behaviors and lessons learned
Whether our first role models are at home, school, or in social circles, they help all of us learn behaviors, understand the spectrum of possibilities available to us, and see life paths modeled for us — which then help us make choices. Gleaning lessons from role models, and applying them to our own lives, happens passively and actively. But when we closely look at our role models and their behavior, we can more consciously apply lessons to our lives. “I’ve learned the most lessons from role models by understanding the problems they’ve faced and how they overcame them,” Alyssa says. By looking at her role models and analyzing their strategies for overcoming problems, Alyssa can take an active role in looking up to them.
Grace takes a similar approach to taking cues from her role models. “I try to take the context of the problem, identify the skill they developed to solve it, why that skill is valuable. Then I look at how they developed that skill and how I might do the same,” she says. For example, she worked on a boat with a female captain whose communication skills she admired. By observing her in action and identifying the skill she hoped to learn from her role model, she was then able to find ways to cultivate it in herself.
Grace also got some great advice from a female role model once, too. “I was advised to come up with a few phrases, to make safe space for myself and others, and get really comfortable saying them,” she explains. “Being able to not only converse at the level of anyone in the room but also diplomatically identify when we can do better, is powerful,” she says. So she’s practiced saying things like “I was almost finished with that sentence,” and “Let’s unpack that later!” Now she’s not ashamed to say them in meetings and does so regularly.
The role of community in finding — and fostering — role models
Sometimes, finding role models at work is the most natural place to start. For Beverly Leu, a Software Engineer on the Growth team, the female Chimer Resource Group (CRG), ChimeHers, has provided her with built-in role models, with a community, and with a forum to connect over shared interests and issues. “Chime has the best set of female role models I’ve ever had in my career,” Beverly says. “ChimeHers has been a great way to foster our connections to one another, identify role models and mentors, and build our allyship muscles.”
Role models — identifying them, connecting with them, and applying their wisdom to our own lives — comes naturally to us when we’re encouraged to, and that’s what we hope ChimeHers and other CRGs provide. The way Grace sees it, “We’re all social creatures and we thrive in community. By creating an accessible safe space for women to gather, we’re helping all ChimeHers thrive. Because Chime is full of impressive women, the CRG always provides a room full of female role models for every ChimeHer to look up to.”
