Author: Ashley Elizabeth / Source: Lifehack
Have you felt a massive gender power shift taking place?
There is a new wave of successful women who are shaking up and redefining the workplace as we know it.
Instead of complacently letting others decide who they are and how they should work, they are finding their voices and claiming a seat at the table.
In short, they are committing to pave their own way, and are doing it unapologetically.Before I dive deeper into this topic, I want to express that this is in no way, shape or form a male bashing article, nor is it a feminist rant.
Rather, it’s a celebration of women and the progress that they’ve made.
The Barriers to the Advancement of Women in the Workplace
Successful women have definitely cracked the glass ceiling, but it is still not broken. The historical white and male culture remains prevalent in organizations.
There is a ‘think-manager-think male’ theory that identifies males and masculine traits as those perceived by men and by women, to be associated with successful leadership.[1] As a result of these ingrained gender stereotypes, people fail to see the leadership potential of women.
We cannot ignore the harsh reality that gender discrimination is still alive and well. Here are a few sad, but true facts:
- After reaching an all-time high of 32 in 2017, the number of female Fortune 500 chiefs has slid back down to 24. That’s a one-year decline of 25%.[2]
- A Harvard online global research study, which included over 200,000 participants, showed that 76% of people (men and women) are gender-biased and tend to think of men as better suited for careers and women as better suited as homemakers. [3]
- Women in upper level executive, administrative and managerial occupations earn 72.3% of what men in the same position earn.[4]
Let’s call a spade a spade – business culture continues to favor the masculine.
The good news is that successful women have seen these trends as clear opportunities to shake things up. They are empowering organizations to value feminine traits within their corporate cultures, on the part of both men and women.
Hanna Rosin, an author and journalist, gave an epic Ted talk on The Rise of Women. She expressed that,[5]
“What the economy requires now is a whole different set of skills… you need to communicate openly, to be able to listen to people and operate in a workplace that is much more fluid than it used to be. And those are things that women do extremely well as we’re seeing”
More women are taking on top executive roles and there has been a shift towards a feminization of leadership. The rise of the feminine is slowly being seen as an investment strategy that works.
The future of female leadership never looked so good. It’s fair to say that it is an exciting time to be a woman.
How I Came to Embody My Feminine Power
As I’m writing this article, I am aware that it is impossible for me to not take a biased perspective. I mean, I am a woman after all, but it’s more than that.
When I was growing up, I had the honor of being surrounded by strong female “teachers”, one of whom was my mother. This woman defines true inner strength. She raised me on my own, while building a career that she loved.
Despite the challenges she faced throughout life being a single parent, she strove to be the leader of her life, and still does to this day.
She taught me how to be a compassionate, authentic, hardworking woman. More importantly, she empowered me to create success on my terms.
It’s fair to say that she is my hero.
From her teachings and my true nature of wanting to give back to others, I developed a burning passion to inspire and empower women. In gradate school, this desire grew.
I wanted to dive deeper into the topic of women in leadership. As a result, I wrote my thesis dissertation on female leadership resilience. During this process, I had the unique opportunity of interviewing powerful women in top levels of leadership.
In our conversations together, they spoke about how they overcame hardship and achieved success. In particular, emphasis was placed on the role that resilience played in their climb.
Since then, I have dedicated my work and my life to empowering women to become addicted to success. Every day I continue to hear powerful stories of resilience, strength and grace under fire.
The rise of the feminine is here.
If you are a woman reading this, you are already successful whether you know it or not. However, many of us have only scratched the surface of our awesomeness.
If you feel like there is more for you to do, you’re right. There are unlimited possibilities for all of us. However, if we want to tackle gender inequality on a global level and create real change, we need to stop focusing on what is wrong and start focusing on what is working.
5 Ways That Successful Women Are Redefining the Workplace
So in a corporate culture that continues to create unseen barriers for the advancement of women, how do we incite change?
Here are 5 ways that successful women are redefining the workplace and shaking things up.
1. They Define Success, on Their Terms
What if success wasn’t what you thought it was? A lot of people, myself included, have fallen into the trap of defining and measuring success based on other people’s definitions.
Let’s face it… there will always be someone who tries to tell you what you should do.
What does success mean to you? For myself, it means committing to unlearn all of the stories that I’ve absorbed over the years about what it means to be a woman.
In many ways, success is a state of mind. Yes, it takes courage to say, “This isn’t my path. I’m going in a different direction.”
However, if you don’t take the time to figure out what it means to live a successful life for you, you will spend your life trying to live up to other people’s expectations of who you should be.
Being told that I should define success on my terms was some of the best career advice that I’ve ever received. I remember the moment when I realized that I had been living someone else’s dream.
It was overwhelming and liberating at the same time. In that moment, I decided that I would no longer try to force myself into roles that didn’t feel aligned with who I was.
In her book Thrive: The Third Metric to Redefining Success and Creating a Life of Well-being, Wisdom and Wonder, Arianna Huffington says that, in order to demonstrate our achievements and worth, we attach to societal status symbols, like being uber-busy, having a fancy car, a large social media following, or a prestigious job title.
Unfortunately, when you achieve these things, oftentimes you are left feeling unfulfilled. Money and power may feel good, but they aren’t necessarily precursors to…
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