‘The Millennial woman’ by a Millennial woman…

No two human beings are alike and there are always differences between regions in culture, etiquette, habits and societal norms. Yet, the outlook of a group seems to be more similar across continents and across professions despite the difference of environments. This group is – you guessed it right – The Millennial professional woman, the urban, educated middle class. Millennials are regularly in the news now. I was curious to know how millennial women around the world think. I wanted to understand their aspirations, their idea of growth and their challenges in order to know our similarities and differences better. So, I set out to connect with professional millennial women such as myself in the age group of mid-twenties to mid-thirties across six continents who come from different professional backgrounds and varied experiences. I connected using a set of questions with approximately 50 people via face to face interactions, and one on one chats over the last few months.

What I found was that the identities of the millennial generation have been strongly shaped by their exposure to global influences in an ever-shrinking world – leading to much similarity in their thinking. This was the generation whose childhood and adolescence were at the cusp of the mobile, digital and social media revolution, and saw the world transform greatly. Millennial women, the world over have also experienced significant changes in the roles women play at home and at work. They are stronger and independent than ever before. However, they acknowledge that they can be even stronger going forward.

Some key characteristics of this group are that the women have more freedom to make their decisions today, there is an openness to experiment and take risks. Failure is not considered fatal, which helps them develop resilience. For example, someone can decide not to marry for life anywhere in the world or pursue college in the age of 30s or even 40s for their own fulfillment. They will not be deterred from pursuing any route they consider suitable to their life mission. I talked to some women who pursued entrepreneurship in Asia and remained undeterred even if they failed in the beginning to keep working towards the path they desire. 

The reality of the world now is that there is a plethora of choice for everything- be it something as big as buying a house to something as small as buying groceries. At times having to decide amongst the several choices is a distraction and takes away much valuable time. Hence, millennial women hope that choices could be simpler. I sometimes wish for simpler times when I didn’t need to choose from more than 1000+ options on what to watch on telly or what kind of bread I want. Even for making big decisions, sometimes I think not having too many choices would help in the sense that you can take one route, give it your best and ignore other possibilities. The good thing is that because of the possibilities, we have a chance to do something revolutionary and with time we become skilled at making decisions in an extremely fast paced environment.

Millennial professional women are driven from early years towards finding meaning and happiness and would rate it higher over money or other traditional definitions of success. They have realized that balance between career & family life is of utmost importance. They know they do not have to give up one in the pursuit of another and are not willing to settle for anything less. Women still juggle aspects of career, family, money and health but I like that they have a primary choice in deciding their priority depending on the life stage they are in. These women are aware of what they need and are forthright in asking for it. Due to their insistence, homes and workplaces have also evolved over time to understand and respect these choices. Their ideal marriages are solid partnerships; where both partners contribute equally to every aspect- from money matters to daily chores. These women understand that you need a strong support system to lead the kind of life they do, and that it starts at home. They also understand that as a professional working woman, they are also contributors and advisors to help their partner achieve professional success. At work, women overcome hesitation to negotiate what they need in terms of equal pay, meaningful work and flexibility, while taking on more responsibility. They are looking for happiness, and if sometimes they do not find it in relationships or career, they are ready to push further than ever before and experiment till they do find it. One woman from South America I talked to would not shy away from taking a career break to travel the world and explore her passion. One settled in the Far East, would love to settle in the remotest parts of the world to contribute to the development of this area. More and more women are making radical choices to push the limits of convention. As one said to me aptly, “We are not looking to avoid problems, we are just looking for the right problems to spend our time on”.

Some common development areas acknowledged by the group are maintaining focus while developing patience and confidence. Women have many interests they like to pursue and everyone seems to be doing everything from travel, cooking, sports/fitness and surprisingly good at doing everything and maintaining balance. However, it is paramount more than ever to be able to find focus in the age of distractions for your key priorities from time to time to achieve your goals. Personally, I struggle to maintain focus and have to constantly work on removing clutter from my mind and my surroundings. Even though they are far more confident than ever, some women still think that confidence is something they can work on to making themselves heard. At the same time, it is critical to develop patience to understand others better for being more effective.

So how does the future look for this group? Reflection is something that helps all human beings. When we think about what is holding us back, sometimes the answers will be within us, and sometimes around us. Hence, I think below are the three simple realizations that can help us in our journey.

1)     We need to know and leverage our strengths well. We often downplay those during stretch moments. Even though we need to learn a lot of skills, it is important that we exercise our ability to learn and our ability to survive tough situations. A very inspiring story of persistence I found was of someone who decided to pursue her love of cooking and take classes to enhance her cake making skills when she moved to a new city. Then, she turned it into a profession by growing her skill by exhibiting her cakes at big events and eventually providing cooking lessons to others.

2)     We should also learn to support other women well. We can relate to each other’s struggles and the meaning of each other’s small victories better than anyone else. The journey is long and tiresome, and you can never do it alone. So, the fact about getting the right encouragement cannot be understated.

3)     Thirdly, there are all kinds of people in the world, some can bring you down while some also lift you up. We should look for the ones that can understand us, give us an honest assessment of ourselves while trying to build us up. Getting the right inspiration is the key to continuity. I rely on some mentors who have seen my journey over last 5-10 years to get their perspective. Many women hesitate to reach out to those outside their peer group. Thus, they limit the kind of insight they can get from people much wiser than them.

The journey with its ups and downs, will enable women to become strong contributors to the progress of the world, while fulfilling their dreams and aspirations. How we exercise our freedom and choice will help us carve out new paths in the world!

P.S. - I know this is a large group, so the insights above may not represent everyone, and I am choosing to focus more on strengths of this demographic. I would appreciate to know what professional millennial women and others reading think about the topic.

#Millennials #Millennialwomen #Inspiration #WomenProfessionals