Empowering women has become more essential than anything in this era of rapid industrial and business growth. The talent and devotion that women possess are unmatchable.
How a woman thrives on moving up the career ladder is one of the challenging aspects of an aspiring woman’s life conquering the very worlds of business and corporations.
Where agendas on gender equality prevail, women still have to cross many barriers as they step into the male-dominated corporate world. So, what could be done to help them break free through the chains of workplace challenges for being a female?
Read further to explore how women, especially the underrepresented ones, can strive to move up the career ladder.
How Can Women Survive Challenges When Moving Up the Career ladder?
Fields of science, technology, business, maths, and engineering have been a long-time witness of the underrepresentation of women when it comes to brilliance and intelligence.
Women are stereotyped to lack the intellectual capabilities as men are believed to have, which we know to be untrue since women are competent.
Before we talk about how women can master skills to overcome these societal barriers of working as businesswomen, whether single moms or working women aspirants, read about what struggles they have to face as they make their way up the career ladder.
The Workplace Challenges for Underrepresented Working Women Aspirants
- Domestic restrictions on women that keep them restricted to taking care of childcare duties and household chores
- Pay gap due to gender identity
- Underrepresentation of women on every job level beginning from entry-level to senior posts
- Biasness of the bosses
- Being mocked for being reactive during that time of the month and being menopausal
- Lack of emotional support of the family, including husband and kids by not being there to comfort her when she needs it
- Sexual harassment and discrimination
- Having a tough time getting rehired or promoted after maternity leaves
- Facing other discrimination factors based on race, ethnicity, or colour
Read further to explore the tips and tricks that can be handy for women such as single mothers, divorcees, single or married females.
What Can a Woman Aspirant Do to Survive Challenges Moving Up the Career Ladder?
1) Be Confident
How you wear yourself in public decides what people perceive about you. So, why not let them perceive you as a woman of confidence?
Your confidence defines who you are. It not only attracts challenges towards you but also enables you to face those challenges successfully.
As an aspiring woman, confidence builds the foundation of your success and creates an image that depicts that you can fight any challenge that makes its way as you move up the ladder.
How should you display your confidence?
The answer is simple yet complicated in the matter of execution.
Firstly, start taking responsibility for yourself. Make your own decisions. Learn to stick by the decisions you make but be open to change when you make mistakes. Try new challenges.
Your brain gets sharper as you make it work during pressure times. Lastly, find yourself a mentor. A mentor will always tell you what your weak points are and how you should work on them. The next tip to success that follows is setting goals for the future.
2) Set Future Goals
Setting future goals will keep you from deviating from what should be your primary focus. Set future goals and let yourself move in a particular direction towards a specific target. Start by setting objectives and breaking them down into smaller but manageable targets.
This will help you track your progress. It will also develop a sense of accomplishment in you as you keep acing smaller goals and objectives.
3) Know Your Worth
People may try to bring you down or discourage you from moving forward. This is where your actual assessment takes place. Recognize your true potential and know your worth.
Believe in yourself that you are worth every challenge and every success that follows. And do not be convinced by the contrary.
4) Filter Critiques
You must train yourself to welcome only the critiques that contribute to a better self. Understand that some of the comments you will hear are solely to make things a lot more challenging for you in the workplace. People will say things to demotivate you. Learn to filter the good critiques.
5) Keep Learning to Polish Your Skills
The more you read, the sharper you get. Keep reading to learn more skills as learning helps to polish your existing skills. This will help you develop a new set of skills, leaving you with ample opportunities in the workplace.
What Can You Do for Her?
Yes, women can fight their battles independently and may not need you to be her support. You can, however, play the supportive role to make things bearable, if not easy in any way for them as they move up the career ladder.
If you are a husband, relative, or friend, a spin of support can make things easier for her. If you are unsure of what you should do, then let these points be of some help to you.
- Reassure her. Tell her that she is doing good and that she should continue to strive for the better.
- Try supporting her with child care so that she has more time on her hands.
- Make her talk about her day. Encourage her to talk out the stress.
- Be a shoulder of relief for her.
- Remind her of her strengths.
- Make her believe that you are by her side no matter what.
- Understand that family is not solely her responsibility, so be a helping hand for her.
The Final Word!
The time has come for women to realize their worth, acknowledging their unparalleled strength of fighting every battle that hinders their way towards success while also ensuring their win. Now is the time to recognize their true powers and rise above all and move up the career ladder without seizing.
If you are an aspirant yourself, then let your confidence define your strength, know that you are worthy enough to work parallel with the men, balance the male dominance in the workplace, accept challenges, and keep learning new skills to ensure your opportunities don’t get limited.
Despite the several challenges that underrepresented working women have to go through, profound career coaches like Samantha Lubanzu strive to empower women by helping them to bring positive changes in both their personal and professional life.