Women in Business – 4 Common Issues and how I Address Them

There are common issues many of my female or diverse clients face. Issues that can often hold them back professionally. Factors such as low self-esteem and imposter syndrome hold them back internally, while factors such as being expected to take up more so-called “non-promotable” work and a lacking support network such as many men have, decrease their chances of professional success externally.

With this blog post I want to dive into several, frequent, factors that inhibit women and diverse individuals from living prosperous professional lives and share some ways in which I help my clients address them. 

Low Self-esteem & Imposter Syndrome

Self-confidence has been consistently shown to have positive effects in multiple areas, such as social context as well as professional or academic success (Dabuke, Zainal & Hakim, 2023). Self-confident individuals feel capable of taking the necessary steps to ask for a promotion, show their expertise or demand a place at the table. People who struggle with self-confidence often don’t do any of this. 

One way that low self-esteem presents itself is in the so-called “Imposter Syndrome”. As the name suggests, people with imposter syndrome (or thinking) feel like they are frauds in their role. They think that they have either been given the role by accident or that they somehow accidentally manage to convince others that they are more capable than they really are.

Here is how I address it:

Start a “Brag List”. Often we feel that our “failures” outweigh our successes. While that is normal (see my previous blog here), we can counter this by paying conscious focus on our successes. One way to do that is by starting and maintaining a “Brag List” on which you can note all your small and bigger successes. Examples of mentionable items for the list are positive feedback, experiences during which you felt competent and that you handled well, general thoughts about your strengths etc. Importantly, no example is too small. 

Keep this list somewhere where you can easily view and add to it and do so regularly (e.g. daily or weekly).

Non-promotable work

Most workers are occupied with a variety of tasks during their workdays. Generally speaking we can differentiate tasks that fall into the direct definition of the role of the employee, usually defined by their work contract, and tasks that offer an additional benefit for the company and its culture. The latter type of work are things that are usually not directly defined in the work contracts and can entail anything from organising social events to gathering money for and the buying of birthday gifts for colleagues. While these tasks are inarguably beneficial for the smooth functioning of the work culture in a company, they are seldomly compensated with money or other benefits. Another name for this type of tasks is “Non-promotable work”, because they seldomly enhance the chances for promotion of the person holding them.

Considering that women still hold the majority of emotional labour and mental load in the homes (Gjerdingen & Center, 2005) it is unsurprising that also in the workplace these types of tasks are mostly carried out by women (Babcock, Peyser, Vesterlund, & Weingart, 2022). This is problematic as they often can take up time that could otherwise be used on projects that are more likely to garner a promotion. 

Here is how I address it: 

I first focus on creating awareness of the issue with my clients by letting them think about how they spent their workdays (and possibly time outside their regular work hours). Questions I ask often include “How are you realistically splitting your workdays between tasks?”. This can be done by looking back at the calendar of a recent “normal” week. I encourage them to be as specific as possible, giving precise estimates in percentage or hours. I then continue with my questions: “How would you ideally split your time between tasks?” Again, I encourage them to be as concrete as possible. This is where the difference between reality and ideal becomes very clear. 

Next we think about strategies to move the reality of how they spend their time towards their ideal scenario. That can include coming up with tangible time goals and limitations for non-promotable work, starting conversations to be included in promotable projects, while leaving non-promotable projects, and even thinking about their availability to others for certain tasks.

Difficulty with Self-promotion and Networking

Without a professional network and having connections few professionals can be successful. Having studied in the Netherlands, where fraternity culture is still an important way to foster later professional success has first opened my eyes to how important connections are. Merit alone is not enough. Women, because they more often work part-time than men and also often have extended interruptions of their work life due to maternity leave and childcare, have fewer easy ways of building a professional network (Waumsley, & Houston, 2009). As a result, many men advance more quickly in organizations, as they experience fewer hurdles to making important connections to improve their position. 

Additionally, there is still a persevering negative attitude about women networking. A woman approaching and opening trying to make connections is seen as “aggressive” and considered less likeable than a man, showing those same behaviours (Wessler, Schneeberger, Christidis, & Gebhard, 2022). 

Here is how I address it:

I talk with my clients how they can start consciously networking by talking about general opportunities addressing internalized conceptions about individuals who network. I help them to question unhelpful thoughts and encourage them to come up with less black and white perspectives that they are more comfortable trying out. 

We often talk about behaviours displayed by others that are seen as extreme or even unlikable. Someone who doesn’t want to seem overly ambitious is more likely to watch a colleague actively network and judge them as being opportunistic and unlikeable. However, it is often those individuals that can be learned from to improve visibility. By finding ways in-between the two extremes, not networking and obnoxious networking, the client can start exploring different means to extend their professional network.

Overwhelming Care Work Outside of Work

Many women, and especially mothers are often inhibited in their ability to grow professionally, by carrying the majority of the carework of the household and their children (Gjerdingen, & Center, 2005). Additionally, they are often the “default parent”, meaning for example that when a child needs to be picked up from school or kindergarten, they are being called, causing them to have to leave work early frequently. This is often made worse by the wage disparity. It often feels like the logical choice for the lesser-earner to prioritize childcare activities over paid labour, as an hour of paid work means a smaller loss to the household. Research by Waumsley and Houston (2009) has even found positive trends in the perception of men working flexible hours while women were rated less positively. The research further concluded that women were less likely to be promoted when they were using flexible working hours to accommodate childcare. Considering that the majority of flexible working practices are women, this is especially concerning (Waumsley & Houston, 2009). This behaviour pattern exacerbates the causing issues, for example, by making it less likely that the women be considered less often for more responsible roles. 

How I address it:

When working with women I often look into how the household and care duties are distributed between partners. I explore ways that can level the playing field when it comes to who is responsible for which tasks, aiming for a fairer distribution of tasks and the connected mental load. Often, the first step towards this change is to open up the conversation about how tasks and responsibilities are distributed, which in many cases is a loaded topic.

One way to increase the chances of having a constructive conversation about this topic is by agreeing on a specific time and place to talk about it. The author Eve Rodsky has extensively explored this issue and offers the idea of regular meetings between partners, and often the broader household to talk about important topics. Having a regular, neutral or even positive experience talking about personal issues can make it likely that they are not only addressed in a more timely manner, they can also make it more easy for the other person to be open to feedback and therefore be more open to change.

*Important disclaimer: The topic of mental load and the distribution of responsibilities in households is a huge one, and I cannot address it completely in a few paragraphs. By making it an open topic for conversation it can be redistributed in a fairer way and improve connection and understanding between partners. Everyone benefits from having a better basis for communication and feeling more understood.

I find my work very satisfying. I love working with individuals who want to change important parts of their lives and enjoy helping them find different approaches to take charge. One of my favourite groups to work with is women in their professional life. Their ages range from early twenties to late sixties and each person I worked with has taught me new things about what common issues they encounter can look like. 

I like to joke sometimes and preface some of what I say with “Let me put on my feminist hat.” during sessions, but truly being a feminist has opened my eyes to many of the systemic issues women and diverse individuals face. I want to help. I want to increase the amount of women in leadership, see more women ask for more and demand equity and equality in their professional roles, as well as in their private lives. 

If you want me to be your evidence-based cheerleader and find out how I can support you, contact me to arrange a first, free get-to-know call. Alternatively, you can subscribe to my blog and receive my monthly blog in your inbox.

References

Babcock, L., Peyser, B., Vesterlund, L., & Weingart, L. (2022). The No Club: putting a stop to
women’s dead-end work. Simon and Schuster.

Dabuke, A.M., Zainal, V.R. and Hakim, A. (2023). The Effect of Self-Ability and Self
Confidence on Employee Performance: A Literature Review. Dinasti International
Journal of Digital Business Management (DIJDBM), 4(2).

Gjerdingen, D. K., & Center, B. A. (2005). First-time parents’ postpartum changes in

employment, childcare, and housework responsibilities. Social Science Research,
34(1), 103-116.

Waumsley, J. A., & Houston, D. M. (2009). Flexible working, professional success and being
female: are they incompatible?. Rev. Eur. Stud., 1, 39.

Wessler, J., Schneeberger, T., Christidis, L., & Gebhard, P. (2022, September). Virtual
backlash: nonverbal expression of dominance leads to less liking of dominant female
versus male agents. In Proceedings of the 22nd ACM international conference on
intelligent virtual agents (pp. 1-8).

Photo by LinkedIn Sales Solutions on Unsplash

Further Resources

• Podcast with Linda Babcock on Financial Feminist 
• Book Fairplay by Eve Rodsky
• Book The No Club: Putting a Stop to Women’s Dead-End Work by Lise Vesterlund, Laurie Weingart, Linda Babcock, Brenda Peyser