Women 2019 - Time to rise up and make a change...

About a year ago, I started sharing about women’s challenges at work. Success stories have been few but the growing number of women’s groups and the growing number of women tough as nails coming forward globally to reinforce that it is possible for women to succeed and thrive in a man’s world is only testament that change is on the horizon, albeit slowly but surely.

Much has been written on the understanding of why gender inequality exists even in the age of data. Some arguing that inequality is also among men and some insisting the same benchmarks are in place ignoring that the criteria used can be viewed as discriminatory does not make it all more palatable. Merely claiming that what is unfair is fair does not make an issue a non-issue. If that still worked, there would not be rising numbers of men and women working towards gender equality.

I wrote earlier about how biasness may just be about people not giving enough time to consider all angles. The angle often taken is based on outdated preconceptions. The world has changed so much yet the same gender biased decisions keep getting made. The worst part is that this is only half of the story. Women want things to be fair but we often do not acknowledge that we contribute towards keeping this bias against us in place.

While some of us are ambitious and work for our career, most of us would give up our careers for our family. If all of us were assertive and ambitious, today’s reality in the work place would be different. As it is, the few of us that are assertive and ambitious face a hard time moving up the ranks because of the preconceptions about women in general that had been established. It is only of late that companies are starting to realize that diversity at senior levels produces better results and things are starting to change for the better.

I would be willing to wager that if women focused on our careers to prove that we can deliver results, worked on overcoming our weaknesses e.g. our confidence levels and emotions, and chose only to work for companies that were fair and non-discriminatory on positions at senior levels, the workplace would be very different from what it is right now.

It is time for change. Collectively as women, we can make a difference... :)

#genderequality #leadership #womenleaders