For decades now, there have been reports going back and for on whether the glass ceiling (the invisible limit for promotion that women frequently see in business) has been shattered or whether it still exists in a big way. I’ll posit that, while in general the glass ceiling exists in the workplace, I think that should never stop women from trying to get ahead at work.
Here, I thought I would identify some of the excuses that women face from their male counterparts that are trying to explain why most women shouldn’t be in management. Then we can one by one dismantle and discard every single one of them and throw them right where they belong: in the trash!
Women are too emotional. It’s true. As women, we’re more in touch with our emotions and express them more freely then most men, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t able to balance our emotions (and great intuition) with logic and the facts at hand. I say there should always be some feeling in business. Without some emotions, you won’t be able to fully express your passion for the company.
Women get too caught up in their family life. Fair enough, many women do make the decision to have a family, but that should not mean sacrificing one dream for another. There is a balance between work and family life and many women find it naturally over time. To automatically assume that a mother won’t be able to handle the workload and a child is just sexist.
Women can’t make split second decisions. There seems to be this stereotype that exists that says that women really need to weigh the pros and cons of a situation before they make a decision and I’ll just say outright that it is a bunch of hooey! Listening to our intuition is one of the best qualities that we, as women have and management should use it to their advantage any chance they get.
Women get bogged down in the details. How does the saying go? “God is in the details.” Yes, we look at the smaller pieces of the puzzles, but learning to look at the big picture isn’t necessarily a skill that’s difficult to learn. If your excuse is that we’ll spend too much time focusing on small things, maybe you should give us a change to handle a big project and see for yourself what we’re capable of before you judge us.
Women don’t know how to delegate. As women, we’re hardwired to multitask better than men are. So sue us. Don’t hate us because we can handle more responsibilities than men and don’t jump to the conclusion that, just because we can juggle more than two tasks, that we aren’t delegating. We know when to say when and not take on all of the responsibilities.
There you are, ladies and gentlemen, I think that successfully handles many of the prominent excuses men use for not promoting women like they should. Can you think of any other stereotypes that exist that you would like to shatter?
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