To Solve Gender Inequality Stop Fixing Women And Start Fixing Workplaces

There are countless self-help books and development programs designed to help women fix themselves to get ahead. Maybe you’ve read some of these books or tried some of these programs. But why weren’t they shifting the numbers? These programs and trainings tell women they must upskill themselves, join women’s groups, find a mentor, attend conferences, learn to negotiate, speak up, ask for a pay rise, and own their power. Women undertake all of this effort to ensure no one ever has any doubt as to why they have a seat at the table. They’ve obviously done the work to earn it.

Not only do women need to work harder than their male counterparts to demonstrate their capability to advance, but they must continuously expend insurmountable physical and mental energy to prove they are simply worthy of doing the job.

Newsflash: women got advanced degrees. Women got the mentors and sponsors. We attended the training. We leaned in (as always), but this has not solved gender inequality. Women are not the problem, and they alone are not the solution. Research study after research study has revealed the different experiences women have of working life, resulting from toxic workplace cultures and poor leadership practices, which include things like sexist jokes, blatant discrimination, male favoritism, and a lack of opportunities to advance. To succeed, women are told to manage their differences by fixing themselves to fit into organizational cultures that do not value them as they are. At the same time, women have to navigate the numerous barriers to their advancement because were never designed with difference in mind.

When we ask women to do more or be more to advance at work (and we do not ask the same of men), we are really saying that women are not competent to begin with. Consequently, women need to prove themselves over and over again to reassure us they are, in fact, competent. This belief is what keeps gender inequality in place.

Often, fix-the-women solutions are accepted as fact, with absolutely no grounds or statistical evidence to support this sexist belief. For example, there is a commonly held belief that women are not paid the same as men because they can’t negotiate and don’t ask for a pay rise as frequently as their male colleagues. However, research published in the Harvard Business Review in 2018 finds that women ask for a pay raise just as often as men, but they are less likely to be given one because of gender bias. To know if any solution is focused on fixing women, all you need to do is to ask yourself: Are men required to take the same action?

So many of us assume the dominant “fix yourself ” narrative is correct. If we could find the critical skill or trait women lack, we can correct the problem. But women already have everything they need to succeed at work and then some.

So many research studies show that women are outstanding leaders; they are communal, democratic, innovative, collaborative, and supportive. Women are skilled, talented, and educated enough, just as they are. So, why have so many women like me been encouraged to believe anything different?

All the books and philosophies on leaning in, swimming with sharks, breaking glass ceilings, and getting people to like you will never solve the problem of workplace inequality. Why? Because women are not the problem. When it comes to gender inequality, we have been looking at women, all the while ignoring the many ways workplaces are broken. If the current solutions we have in place worked, we wouldn’t have the gender inequality problem that exists in workplaces today.

It’s worth repeating: We are trying to fix something that isn’t broken. We needed to look at the workplace itself. We need to call time-out on the women-fixing epidemic. It is sexist, unfair, and damaging. Fix-the-women approaches are inherently misogynistic because by telling women they need to do more or be more than men to succeed, we are, in fact, telling them that they are not good enough to start with. This sexist message slowly chips away at women’s confidence, which makes fix-the-women solutions even more compelling.

Solutions aimed at fixing women are built on a lie. Women are not broken. Women are exceptional.

Women are innovative. Women are transformative. Women make for great team players. Women are remarkable leaders. The more we try to fix women, the less effort we all dedicate to the real issue of gender inequality in workplaces. That’s why sharing this message is so incredibly important.

For more information on solutions that work, please check out these links.

Forbes

Harvard Business Review

Ted

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