Positions Of Power Do Not Solely Belong To Men

We are born into our bodies, we didn’t ask for our height, gender, skin colour, or what our bodies look like. We know this, and yet assumptions are always made on who we are simply via our accidental bodies without any care as to what we have in our brains. In business, politics and many other areas, a tall, well-dressed man is immediately considered more competent and authoritative than a young, petite blond woman.

Fact. Being a woman in business since the age of 23 (but looking 16 at the time), I’ve consistently battled these assumptions and won - but it’s always a battle. This discrimination is everywhere: look at the backlash women of colour in politics receive from men - they are even called witches (what century are we in?!) and they are treated as an unwelcome exception. These women know that they are no exception and they are just as (or more) competent than men in suits. And they aren’t going anywhere, their presence has opened doors for many more women like them to enter the political sphere.

While it is a struggle to be constantly typecast via how I look, it is so rewarding to prove stereotyping wrong over and over again. A petite, feminine blond woman absolutely ruling it in business is no “exception,” I am not an exception. My gender, frame, hair colour and fashion choices I know are my strengths despite others who see otherwise. Daily I get to utilize the power of my business acumen and with that, with every win, I get to obliterate discrimination one win at a time. But that’s also why my company is called Femme Fatale: yes the term itself can celebrate high femme glamour, but the word ‘Fatale’ denotes the consummate power of women with a particular emphasis on their huge brains, utter bravery and uncompromising self-empowerment.

While the progress may be slow, progress is at hand to dismantle discrimination on a wide scale - positions of power do not solely belong to men.