Women have made great strides over the years to carve their place across professions; however, they continue to be heavily outnumbered in some sectors. Women in any industry can encounter sexual harassment, lack of mentoring and career opportunities, and high stress and anxiety levels. Still, they are more prominent for women in male-dominated industries. However, this isn’t the experience of every female working in male-dominated workplaces.
To get through their working day, some will distance themselves from other female colleagues, leave their job (sometimes to a lower-paid one), and accept inappropriate behaviour explaining it as “one of the boys,” which normalises and further compounds this masculine culture.
Suggestions to not only cope in this industry but thrive in a profession you enjoy could be to try some of the following:
Know Your Limits
While it might be that some attitudes and banter are more misogynistic, know where your limits are. Be clear in communicating where your line is so others then are aware of this. Having boundaries is a skill, and there are different ways to exert these, which support you and the person you’re interacting with.
- Mindful Responding
Try not to respond straight away. Practice getting into the habit of pausing and checking in with how you are feeling. Will saying ‘yes’ increase your workload or stress levels. What do you value at this moment, does agreeing to it mean you will compromise another value, for example, having to cancel a commitment with a friend. Stay in the moment, and don’t feel pressured to offer a response. Ask them to repeat the request so you can think about it at the moment.
- Build a Reputation of No
Our reputation signals to others how we are likely to respond. If you are a ‘yes’ person, others will come to expect this from you. Build a reputation for being a no person when you have to. You can say no firmly, with kindness and respect. Don’t apologise for saying no. The boundary is there to support and protect you.
Manage Imposter Syndrome
Most people experience some degree of imposter syndrome, where they struggle to acknowledge success and have extreme feelings of self-doubt. Working in the minority might make these feelings more pervasive. Some suggestions that could help are outlined below.
- Daily affirmations
Take time to think about yourself with a close friend or family member, someone you trust. What is it about you that you would like your friends or family to say as a person in general and a worker. What you come up with will almost certainly be the qualities you strive to be every day, in other words, what you value about yourself. Think about how these qualities have emerged in what you do daily.
- Get objective feedback
Try and gain feedback from trusted colleagues regularly and be willing to embrace criticism also. If you ask people for honest feedback, they will almost always provide you with positive qualities or things they like about you as a worker. If the relationship is good enough, you might also get some pointers to reflect on and improve how you are at work.
- Name your mind
It might sound strange- but try giving your mind a name (as if it were another person). Our minds are often needlessly and irrationally self-critical. We would not tolerate from others what our minds say to us daily, but self-criticisms often lack validity! If you give your mind a name, you can be more mindful in the face of self-criticism because it serves to get some distance from these thoughts. For example, if you’ve named your mind ‘Jan’ and you notice your mind being self-critical, you could say, “Jan is saying right now, I’m rubbish at my job.”
Support
It can be helpful to have a mentor who understands your challenges and can support you in reaching your goals in your career. Choose one that you can build a relationship with, who believes in you and will genuinely champion you to others. It doesn’t necessarily need to be another female, but it can help someone who has experienced what it’s like to be in the minority group in their workplace. Alongside having a mentor, build a network of women to offer peer support to one another. This could be that you find other women in your industry and get together online or in person each month.
Know Your Worth
You have earned your job. Set your expectations about career progression and what success looks like to you. If you feel apprehensive about asking for a pay rise or promotion, check and find ways to manage these feelings, it could be practicing some grounding and present moment techniques before speaking with them. For example, having a longer exhale than inhale. So, when we breathe out longer, in a slow and controlled way, this can lower our heart rate, giving our brain the message that there is no stressor present and helping us feel calmer.
Project Confidence
You don’t have to feel confident to project an image of confidence. It might sound funny, but the superhero pose can help us feel more confident, as it changes our brain’s chemistry by altering the body’s hormone production.
The power hormone, testosterone, increases our self-esteem and confidence. In the superhero power pose, cortisol (the stress hormone) reduces. So, holding your head up and shoulders back, projecting your voice, and telling yourself what you have to say is worth listening to are all ways to help you feel and project an image of confidence. There are advantages for women working in male-dominated workplaces. One of the biggest is being able to act as a role model to other younger women wanting to pursue similar careers as you. Therefore, women in these positions can be hugely influential in positively affecting the future workforce. In addition to inspiring the next generation, you can also be part of changing the culture, and this diversity can help organisations to see things from a different perspective.
Many women have forged a successful career in workplaces dominated by men. Diversity and inclusion should be a priority in every organisation. Listening and learning from women about their experiences and how to support them better will undoubtedly help retention and engagement levels in their roles.
