One thing I didn’t fully grasp before entering the corporate world was how much of an obstacle gender would be as I navigated career growth. I had the naive mentality that the job or opportunity would simply show up or be unbiasedly awarded to the most deserving person & that promotions would appear fairly & only as a result of my personal performance & hard work. Little did I know the challenges would be greater than expected & new challenges I hadn’t even considered would be something I’d have to overcome.
Gender inequality was never something I really gave much thought to but being front & center for some time now has been enlightening to say the least. Now that I’ve experienced first hand the effects of gender inequality, I understand the importance of organizations being held accountable in their efforts to keep women in mind &making diversity in the workplace a priority. However, I realize I also have to show up & do my part in whatever realm I’m present. Thinking back on the growth I’ve had in my career, even as another woman in the workplace, I’ve had a personal hand in contributing to the discrimination we face. Personal pettiness wasn’t something I considered a contribution to a global gender related crisis till now. Honestly, you may not want to hear this but, you just might be part of the problem too sis.
Like many women I know, most of the positions I’ve held have been in male dominated industries which meant seeing first hand the struggle women colleagues experience with making the strides to their desired career advancements. They often wind up getting close but not quite the same level of respect, recognition or pay as their male colleagues who in some cases were clearly less educated & even less qualified. Though the industries I’ve fallen into have been mostly male dominated almost ALL of my supervisors have been female, all with different leadership styles & all of which I’ve been able to learn valuable career lessons – both negative & positive. While I was lucky to experience this female representation in leadership, many lessons on how we as women in leadership or not, sabotage the reputations of all were evident. Just as I had been unfairly discounted the credit or opportunity I deserved by female supervisors based on the gender stereotypes, I’ve also been on the other side adding weight to them & not realizing the significant impact they’d caused. Knowing that on both the end of leadership & support I lacked the unbiased views we’ve been desperately demanding is disappointing.
I can honestly admit to being a contributor in conversations where I voiced opinions about my female supervisor based on gender, rather than the facts which was their inability of showing up as a substantial leader or lying on the fact that we may have just be incompatible to say the least. Maturing in my career has brought change to how I now perceive things, voice opinions on consciously consider women who show up or fail to show up in their respective roles. Giving credit where due despite that incompatibility and being more politically correct in my evaluations if you will.
I believe that shaping the views on our behalf starts with a personal audit, holding ourselves accountable & being conscious of the part we may play, negative included, towards closing the gap on gender division, discrimination & furthering the tarnished reputations of females that ultimately effect us ALL.
As a millennial, I’m proud of the current generation of women having a part in reshaping the way the world views & treats us, making sure the progress made before us isn’t undone but pressed forward into better opportunities & demanding the very rights we’ve been told were ours to have, yet we still have very limited on the access to. I’m proud to be part of a generation of women who seek out the value in what we have to offer as individuals & as a collective. Because of this I have been more encouraged to pursue my passions career related & personal which have in turn been fulfilling as well as inspiring for others like myself to do the same.