Building Bridges

Women and men are living very difficult times, it seems that to go forward we have been going backwards. This year there have been many marches for several causes, whether you attended one or not is not as important as how you live your life every day. Do your actions reflect the things you believe in? Are those principles reflected in all your relationships (work, friends, family, etc.)?

Today, its March 8th, we celebrate women around the world. As a woman, I dislike the fact that we need a day to remind people of the great things my gender does, I’m worried about the anger that is being fostered by an entire generation because we are not building bridges, we are making the gender gap bigger.

Everyone is concentrated on how men and women are different, in the uniqueness, in the strength of one gender (men or women); there aren’t enough conversations on how to bring us together.

For women in the workplace this is no different, we get asked questions in interviews that are not asked to men, we get paid less, what we say is not as important as what men say, men might repeat the same thing and get rewarded for it.

We need to build bridges:

Communication. What men and women say are equally important, but we must listen to each other. First thing, if the other is talking don’t talk, pay attention. Don’t respond just to impose yourself over the other person, respond because you listened and have something to contribute to the conversation.

Value. The person who is in front of you, men or women, are equally valuable. A men’s job is not more valuable than a women’s job, they are just as valuable. The recognition of value of each other will increment the performance of both. We need bridges, where men are supportive of women and vice versa.

Actions. How we treat each other is important, actions will always speak louder than words. If the company says they are promote gender equality but there is a gender gap pay, the equality is not real, for it to be real it must be set by actions. What we do sends a larger message than what we say, so don’t just talk be an active participant for gender equality.

We have been talking about gender differentiation for a long time, it’s time for men and women to build bridges of understanding, for recognition of value and for active participation in changing the perspective of a new generation in gender equality, respect and value.