Based on this statement, no over-thinking, please answer the following four questions.
1. If you had to guess the gender of the speaker, what’s your guess?
2. What’s the main reason for your choice?
3. What costs would you expect to be associated with this statement?
4. Have you or anyone you know thought or said something similar?
As you are likely aware, #ChoosetoChallenge is the theme of International Women’s Day this year. The choice to embrace assertiveness is a challenge for many women in the workplace for various reasons, one of which is our collective biases associated with The Double Bind. If you haven’t yet seen Adam Grant’s recent piece in The Washington Post, here is an excerpt that speaks to the Double Bind in action.
“Why didn’t having status and influence lead women to be more vocal? Experiments showed that women weren’t worried about building rapport. They were afraid of being perceived as too dominant and controlling, which is exactly what happened when they did speak up. Gender stereotypes persist. People expect men to be assertive and ambitious but women to be caring and other-oriented. A man who runs his mouth and holds court is a confident expert. A woman who talks is aggressive or pushy.”
If you agree with Adam Grant and believe that increasing awareness of this injustice is necessary for change, then I challenge you to influence change in your sphere of influence this March. Here are three very different routes for your consideration to raise awareness and start meaningful action-oriented conversations.
1. Share and discuss the issues this article raises with your colleagues:
2. Share Satire to surface and discuss thoughts and biases:
3. Use CULTIVATE Resource cards with your team to reduce minimizing language use: Download PDF's here : https://www.vate.ca/downloadable-pdfs
Be sure to find me on LinkedIn and tell me how it's going for you!