Top 10 Everyday Challenges Working Women Face

Let’s face it, women face many disadvantages at work:

• Male-favoring workplace cultures
• Dominating and aggressive male personalities
• Gender bias and gender pay gap
• Double-bind effect
• Glass ceiling
• Limited childcare support
• Sexual harassment
• Discriminated when pregnant or with children
• Automatically assumed to be less committed than men
• Limited sponsorship

Women are often talked over, interrupted, passed over for promotions, dismissed, discredited, labeled, undermined, excluded for important meetings and projects, ignored, and given vague and non-helpful feedback and explanations.

But what is not talked about as much are the daily hurdles that women have that halts their career growth, consumes their energy, and damages their confidence.

Here are 10 of the top everyday challenges real women have to deal in the workplace and a simple yet powerful tool that any woman can use to help overcome them.

1. Not Taken Seriously

Often women are automatically perceived as less capable, just because they are women, as a result of gender bias. And many men will subconsciously think they are better than their female counterparts (when they are not!).?

That makes many women feel ignored in meetings, in staffing for important projects, and in opportunities for growth and promotion.

2. Perceived As Too Difficult Or Too Aggressive

When women disagree openly, instead of being acknowledged for their unique perspectives and contribution, they are told they are too difficult or too aggressive.

Then, women feel silenced and lose the motivation to challenge the status quo, which leads to them not being seen as bold leaders who take risks and can bring big growth.

3. Constantly Questioned

Many women feel like people always question their credibility, even if they’ve repeatedly proven themselves, or even if they are more senior, have more experience, or more degrees than others.

When a woman is feminine, girly, and likes to look pretty, people automatically assume that they aren’t smart and capable just because of how they look.

This constant pressure to prove themselves over and over again is exhausting and irritating.?

4. Told They Are Too Outspoken Or “Bitchy”

When women speak their mind and energetically share ideas or concerns, they are often told they are too outspoken, bitchy, or too loud, while men are seen as bold and as great communicators.

This makes it extremely hard for women get noticed and considered for promotion. Because they need to be outspoken to increase their visibility and show their potential to decision makers.

5. Not Treated As An Equal

Women are not treated as equal to men in pay, opportunities, and interactions. Several studies show that women with the same experience and capabilities get paid considerably less than their male counterparts.

But the problem is that women also get less access to big strategic opportunities that can lead to rapid growth, massive results, and high visibility which are crucial to get considered for promotion. Instead, they get more of the back office, low visibility, prevention type of work that will at most keep them stuck if they do well.

On top of that, women will get less access to the top decision makers and leaders as mentors and sponsors, which again, put women at a massive disadvantage vs. men.

6. Negative Spotlight

Women often get the negative spotlight and great attention when something goes wrong, but if something goes well, they are ignored.

While men often get positive spotlight when something goes right, but if something goes wrong, they are perceived as go-getter risk takers who are learning in the process which makes them great leadership material.

7. Feel Forced To Be Inauthentic

Many companies still have a very masculine culture and value masculine traits such as dominance, aggressiveness, and command.

When women try to adjust to behave in those ways, they sometimes feel inauthentic and they get the double-bind effect, where they are seen as less likable which affects their growth.

8. Bro Culture Misfit

In many companies, departments, teams, leadership, and boards, there is a strong bro culture and bro talk that makes it hard for women to fit in to. This is especially true in male-dominated workplaces.

This is when guys bond by chatting about topics that most women don’t get excited about or know much about, such as football and other sports, women, and cars.

In order to fit in, women might spend days trying to learn about topics they don’t care about, force a conversation that they have no interest in, and laugh at jokes they don’t find funny.?

But at the end, it takes up a lot of their time and energy, and their lack of passion will still come across in their non-verbal language. Plus, guys prefer to talk such things with other dudes.

9. Alone

There’s a lack of female mentorship and community as a support system, and it can end up feeling lonely when there aren’t that many women around nearby.

When women don’t have great female role-models that they have easy access to, and that look like them, in their companies, it is easy to start believing that there isn’t a path for them to make it no matter how smart and capable they are.

10. No Work-Life Balance

Many companies that still have a male-dominant leadership tend to reward loyal employees who repeatedly demonstrate that they will commit to work over family or personal life by working after-hours, on weekends, and traveling constantly. They reward employees with no work-life balance.

But the reality is that there is still a strong imbalance in the amount of home and childcare related work that men and women take on. That is why many women cannot abandon house chores and children’s activities for work.

That doesn’t mean that women are less effective at all. On the contrary, their work is more focused and productive. But it is not understood in that way. It is seen as lack of commitment and loyalty.?

This leads to women being forced to choose between career growth, having time to raise their children to their content, or burnout.

Not only that, but many employers also don’t understand, respect, or even care about the maternity challenges women face, and will discriminate them because of it.

Leadership Initiatives Are Not Enough For You

Luckily, there are many initiatives happening to educate leadership on these biases and challenges, and there are attempts to increase gender diversity and inclusion.

However, we are far from resolving these problems.?

What can you as a woman do if you find yourself experiencing several of these challenges in your job? If you encounter most of these issues, maybe quitting may be a good idea. But if you keep quitting over and over again, you won’t be able to make much progress in your career either.

What is the solution?

Plan And Optimize Your Communication

You need to be able to get clear on what you need to be successful and fully express yourself. That includes your big bold ideas, your diverging ideas, your desire for promotion, your desire for big strategic projects, your need for training and development, the value that you create and contribute, and your preferences around meeting times. You need to be able to take some control over your work and career back to you.

And the most powerful way of doing so without having to change your personality or become less feminine but also reducing the double-bind that women typically face is by communicating with empathetic assertiveness.

Use Empathetic Assertiveness

Empathetic assertiveness is the skill of speaking your mind without holding back and in a respectful, kind, and empathetic way. It is the best communication form to allow you to simultaneously be very direct and at the same time be perceived as kind and caring, which is often associated as a feminine characteristic.

Empathetic assertiveness will give you the power to be heard, respected, and taken seriously as a woman at work, even if you’re in a macho workplace culture.?

Next Steps

Empathetic assertiveness is your best tool to show off your credibility without being questioned, to be taken seriously and be seen as capable, to be able to speak directly and not be labeled too aggressive, difficult, or a bitch, to be able to speak your mind freely without being told you are too loud or too outspoken, to be treated as an equal, to be yourself even in a bro-culture environment, to increase the positive spotlight, to get more work-life balance, and to feel more authentic in your own skin.

In my?Assertive Way newsletter , I give weekly tips and inspiration to help you master empathetic assertiveness, be heard, get taken seriously, get your point across and claim your voice to claim your life.?Click here to sign up for the free Assertive Way newsletter ?or?click here to get started with a crash course on how to be assertive without being rude .