Why Women Don’t Talk About Their Achievements
…And why they should
For many women, confidence is hard to come by. For generations, women were supposed to keep quiet and look pretty, especially in the workplace. We weren’t supposed to start kicking butt and taking names in business, but we have.
However, despite the great strides that have been made for gender equality and the increased focus on female entrepreneurs and executives, the ever-widening gender gap in our culture is still very real.
According to the Senate Committee of Small Business and Entrepreneurship, there are more than 11 million women-owned businesses that generate more than $1.6 trillion in revenues.
Despite this, a LinkedIn study showed women are far less braggy about their successes than men. Their profiles are shorter, and “even when they had similar jobs and skill levels, women would still include 11% less of their skills than men on their profiles.”
Why this egregious demonstration of humility?
For starters, women are expected to be modest. To go up against these “modesty norms” and boast about one’s accomplishments causes women to experience a certain demotivating discomfort. We’re fine promoting other women, but to promote ourselves is just… gauche. For many women, excessive self-promotion seems crass…
