Why we need to know about the Gender Code

Right now, so many assumptions that we operated under are being challenged.  Practices, behaviours, norms and hard truths that have been lying beneath the surface as ‘the fabric of our lives’ are being tested. This is particularly true in relation to the role of women.

Many women are taking on more responsibilities personally and professionally and are expected to produce at increasingly higher levels with fewer external resources. There are expectations - driven internally and externally – to set up family members, direct reports, team members, leaders and community members for success.

Women taking on yet more of the load

Many women who are in leadership roles are also lead parents. They are now taking on the home schooling of their children, ensuring their teams are transitioning to working remotely, creating outside the box solutions to challenges big and small and supporting others to manage huge levels of stress.

Many are focused on the wellbeing of all those they care for and are prioritising the needs of others over their own.

Whether you work full-time, part-time, or flexibly and no matter how pressured your role is, it can feel as though everyone constantly wants things from you and the days are just too short. Trying to be the glue that holds everything together is hard at the best of times and even more challenging now with enforced physical distancing and home isolation.

As business executives or business owners and now defacto teachers and entertainment officers, you have no doubt had to made some changes to create a new rhythm to manage all the pressures, but something has to give.

What is causing this overload and pressure and when did it become so hard?

The cause is the established cultural beliefs and stereotypes that have become truths. To get through the other side of COVID-19 women need to understand what these cultural beliefs and stereotypes are and to see them for what they are: myths and out-moded stories.

The structures of power across societies and especially in business have evolved to make sense of the environment and manage the people who live within it. Certain structures – gender, race, class – provide the set of rules of how to belong that have formed the codes we live by.

The code that impacts the lives of women struggling, striving and straddling is the Gender Code.

When you accept, understand and break the Gender Code you can explore its rules and expectations. You can also question whether the externally created expectations of the Gender Code are relevant to you today and how you may be subconsciously perpetuating them. By cracking the Gender Code, you can move out of/away from creating the personal pressure of the feeling that what you are contributing isn’t ever enough and release your real potential.

Now more than ever, it is time to put the Gender Code under the microscope, scrutinise the equation of productivity + busyness = worthiness and dismantle outdated executive leadership/motherhood myths.

Rather than living according to what you assume society expects, you can question the norms and choose for yourself what makes sense and fits with your values and purposes.

The world as we knew it has changed. You now have the opportunity to reframe it the way you want, build your own, unique, evolved Code, one that works for you rather than against you.

Reframe your view of success and refine your view of your leadership skills

All you do now is valuable and the skills of parenting are a powerful career and leadership asset. Being an adaptive leader in these times is one of the critical skills sets that will see companies and organisations through the COVID-19 pandemic.

It’s also a prime time to crack the Gender Code and reframe how you live your life.

Would you like to know more?

Breaking the Gender Code: How to use what you already have to get what you actually want is the book that provides knowledge and insights into the Gender Code and actions you can take.

Purchase it now at the special pre-publication offer of $24.95 a 30% discount off the RRP $34.95.

Use the coupon code GENDERCODE at checkout.

10% of book sales go to the incredible Mothers and Sons program which supports parents to raise respectful boys and become respectful men

Click here