No More Superwoman -- Put Your Big Girl Pants On!

I’m attracted to women and topics that help women cope with and improve both their personal and professional lives. Two things about Meg Bucaro got my attention — her speech challenging the Superwoman Syndrome which can be costing you your health and happiness, and the intriguing title of her book, Put Your Big Girl Pants On.

It turns out Meg is a communications expert, and it is communication that is at the heart of both these themes.

Meg Bucaro

No More Superwoman — Put Your Big Girl Pants On!

When I interviewed her, Meg explained it to me this way: “In the Superwoman Syndrome, women are comparing themselves to some ideal view of perfection. They feel like they’re coming up short, and therefore they feel badly about themselves. They feel guilty or like they’re not enough.

“Putting on your big girl pants is about how we show up to others and a little bit about what’s going on inside. But it’s all related, because communication research reveals that our true thoughts and feelings leak out of us.”

“Part of that is the internal conversation that we don’t have to be perfect to be worthy and valuable and powerful and influential,” she told me. “Perfection is really not what it’s cracked up to be.”

“And then how does that look as far as our communication behaviors?” she continued.? “How does it sound as far as our communication behaviors? That is how I tie together the Superwoman Syndrome and ‘putting your big girl pants on.’”

Meg is a professional speaker, communications coach, college instructor and mother of three energetic children. ?All these roles fuel her passion to help others communicate with more confidence and live up to their highest potential. She works with men and women, but the book in particular, was born out of her passion for what she observed in women’s communication.

“There are certain behaviors that women do sometimes just innately that we don’t realize are undermining our value in a communication interaction ?— we tend not to take up physical space, or vocal space, and our vocal tone may not be powerful, i.e. making a statement that ends in a question mark.

“Because I have one leg in academia [she is a college teacher], I have easy access to research, and I love reading research on what is true, what has been proven, evidence-based research on the communication of confidence, the differences between genders, etc. And so, it was easy for me to get this information and then translate it to the woman who is in the office, whether home office or corporate office or wherever it might be, to say, ‘Okay, look, the research tells us that when we take up less space, we don’t feel great, we’re less effective.

“So how can we change that? That’s where, ‘Put your big girl pants on,’ comes in. Really all that means is standing in our own true authentic value, worthiness, and confidence. And sometimes we need a reminder to get there. It can be a great playlist of our favorite artists. Sometimes it’s putting on a great outfit or doing a little exercise – or just having a nice cup of tea. So whatever that is, I call that, ‘Let’s put our big girl pants on’ and remind ourselves of the value that we do have and bring it to whatever communication interaction we might be having.”

Meg noted that the book is under 100 pages, because she didn’t want it take up a lot of a busy woman’s time to learn a few things that could help her be more powerful in her communication interactions.

Meg’s whole goal is to help women show up in their own power and value.

“I think in general, social judgments happen based on how we show up,” she concluded. “So taking control and increasing our awareness of how we are showing up in any communication interaction is of utmost importance.”

Whether she is speaking to women’s groups on how the Superwoman Ideal is costing us our health and happiness (and what to do about it) or working with clients on how to prepare a confident testimony, Meg brings her expertise, sense of humor and passion to each class, session and event! You can learn more and view videos here.

To bring her expertise to your organization, clients, or employees, give me a call at 503-699-5031 or email [email protected]

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