Women in the Workplace
Workplaces are not equal between men and women. There are different expectations between genders, particularly for women with kids. There are also other ways in which women are discriminated against in the workplace, in addition to being held back for having children. These other forms of discrimination ensure that women typically have to work harder than men do in order to advance their careers and get noticed.
In my book, One of the Boys: How to Succeed as a Woman in a Male-Dominated Field, I share the story of Mary Smith (name changed) who experienced this when she entered the technology field. When she first made the decision to go into tech it never really occurred to her that it was male-dominated, she just jumped right in. Up to that point, Mary had always been taught that the world is a meritocracy. She had grown up believing the philosophy that everyone has an equal opportunity for success if they worked hard. She took this for granted and assumed that working hard would lead her to success. It wasn’t until she had her first child that she realized the vast gender difference that exists in her workplace. She had to stop working to stay home and care for her colicky baby, while her husband continued going off to work each day. This was a major cause of anxiety for Mary. She describes this break in career using the analogy of a marathon runner who had been training to race for years. The runner gets to the race, but stops and does nothing for 40 minutes at mile 7. The anxiety that this athlete would face is the same anxiety that Mary faced when putting her career on pause for her family. Just like the men she worked with, she had gone to school, gotten a degree, and worked extremely hard to get to where she was, but was still put at a disadvantage in her career by having children, while those men were not. It is easy to see how women can get behind in their careers due to childbirth, just as a runner would get behind in a race if they had to stop for an extended period of time.
Women are 15% less likely to earn a promotion than men and a woman with children is 50% less likely to earn a promotion than a woman without children. This statistic shows that not only are women discriminated against in the promotion process, but women with children are even more discriminated against than women without children. Unfortunately, the issue of women losing out on their careers due to childbirth is deeply ingrained in the business world. Many companies are hesitant to hire young women out of fear that they will get pregnant and need to take time off. When you hire a woman and she has a baby, most companies force other employees to cover instead of hiring a temporary employee to take on the woman’s responsibilities while she is gone. This creates incredible strain on organizations because many companies cannot afford to be without an employee for a period of time. Mary relates this phenomenon to playing on a sports team. If your goalie were forced to sit on the sideline and you weren’t able to put in a new one, everyone else on the team would have to work harder to cover for the missing player. This creates a hidden reluctance to hire and promote women, particularly in male-dominated fields.
Feeling like you need to work harder than the boys to earn the same respect that they automatically receive is extremely frustrating, but it is a reality for women in male-dominated environments. The best action you can take in these situations is to work hard and use the need for respect as motivation to improve.
If you do stand out, you might find that people will put you down. This is because they are jealous of you, not because they do not respect you. This is an important distinction to understand. While the world is not equal for men and women, particularly for women working in male-dominated fields, women who turn this disadvantage into an advantage are the ones who are most successful. Use other people’s doubts about your abilities to fuel your progress.
This is an excerpt from my book, One of the Boys: How to Succeed as a Woman in a Male-Dominated Field. I hope you enjoyed this post — if you want to connect, you can reach me here via email ker73@georgetown.edu or connect with me on social: LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. Also, you can find my book on Amazon — here is the link to buy it: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07KMFPCJD
