Nikki Bush | Owner | Nikki Bush & Associates | mail me |
It’s 2022. We have electric cars, online shopping (and drones to deliver it), and artificial intelligence – fantastic. But why do we not see loads of women growing, thriving and revolutionising the world in this highly evolved environment?
One of the main reasons is that women are still being underpaid. South Africa’s median gender pay gap is 23% to 35% – in 2022! But that is only part of the problem.
Perhaps it’s controversial for me to say this, but to a large extent, women still look to society for change when they are biased against themselves in some ways. Perhaps this is due to centuries of conditioning with notions that a man’s career development takes precedence in a relationship. A woman loses out on years of income and asset growth when she stops working to bear children. Women default to taking on the ‘soft skills’ jobs because they are conditioned to believe that they don’t have the ‘hard skills’ abilities, e.g., marketing vs finance. Women stick with what they know they can do versus pushing into unknown territory for fear of failure and humiliation.
Whether we like it or not, whether we know it or not, I believe these are scripts we are automatically living out – narratives that no longer serve us that must be challenged and changed. We can overcome our blind spots and adjust our expectations with greater awareness. In this way, we show others how to treat us and raise their expectations for us. So, there it is.
Margaret Thatcher famously said, “If you want something said, ask a man; if you want something done, ask a woman.” It’s a beautiful sentiment, but the real work of women’s empowerment is not getting done.
It must start with us, or we’ll never get it right.
Start inside your mind
You can do things to shift the status quo in your favour, and – trust me! – the most enduring shifts are internal first.
Take a moment to consider these questions:
- How do you disqualify and discount yourself (stories you tell yourself or those others tell that don’t serve you)?
- Is the way you think about yourself elevating, diminishing, or keeping you at a standstill
- What is…
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Read the full article by Nikki Bush, Owner, Nikki Bush & Associates, as well as a host of other topical management articles written by professionals, consultants and academics in the October/November 2022 edition of BusinessBrief.
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