Professional Women Advancing Their Careers

Given the challenges for women who want to advance their careers, I asked two groups of women with whom I was working what motivated them to want to take on those challenges. Their responses were varied but displayed an energy and conviction that was inspiring.

"I know I have talent, expertise and potential and I want to develop it and use it."

"I'm ambitious, and I have a vision for my life and goals I want to fulfil."

I'm a bit of a trail blazer. The idea of breaking through barriers, e.g., the famous glass ceiling, is a challenge that I find exciting!"

"I love the buzz of pushing the boundaries and discovering new challenges."

"I want to prove to all the men in my family, who I don't think really believe in my capabilities, that I have as much ability as they do."

"I want to make a difference in my organisation. I believe I have a vision for it and the expertise to implement that vision and I want the chance to do it."

"I want financial freedom to live the life I desire and that can only come with advancing my career and the income that goes with that."

"I want the meaning, purpose and fulfilment that comes with living and working at my full potential."

"I want the status that acknowledges my competence and the power that comes with it to bring about changes that I believe are important."

"I want to open doors for other women."

"My mother has a very successful career and she has been a real role model for me. I want to go where she has been - and even further!"
What motivates you?

Barriers for Women in Growing and Advancing Their Careers.

We know from the statistics on women's involvement on boards and the number who have achieved CEO status in their organisations, to mention just two indicators, that there are many barriers to women growing and advancing their careers as they would like. If they can identify, however, the barriers to their career advancement they can empower themselvces to break through each one and achieve the success they desire. So what are these barriers?

Women Having Children and Caring For Them.

Certainly having children and caring for them is a significant issue for us as women. It does interrupt our careers and poses many challenges regarding work/family balance, especially if we don't have a supportive partner, or an employer who offers us flexibility in balancing our work and our family.

Women Not Understanding Well Enough The Culture of Their Organisation and What They Need To Do To Make It In That Culture.

Culture is that intangible reality that shapes organisations. It creates the ethos, tone, spirit, energy, vibes and motivation that drives the organisation. It determines how things are done and achieved there. It is a powerful (yet invisible) force and personal success and fulfilment depends on whether we fit our organisation's culture. If we do, then the organisation offers much potential for career advancement but the opposite is also true.

Women Not Getting Themselves in The Pipeline.

Knowing what the progression is in our organisation or industry and getting in line, in the pipeline, is something to which many of us don't pay sufficient attention. What has to be done to advance our careers is something men make a priority of knowing, often from the moment they join a company. They then commit considerable energy and time to making it happen. We, as women, often look on with either amusement or derision at how blatantly they do it, yet they get the promotions and we don't! Women who are in the pipeline can sometimes lose their position because of their family commitments. Even three months maternity leave may see us miss a promotion because we weren't there when it came up.

Women Not Knowing The "Rules of The Game".

Growing and advancing a career is not always a clear and transparent process. It is a "game" and there are "rules". If we do not know the "rules" and many of us don't, or if we do know them but don't like the compromise involved in playing by the "rules", we'll have trouble winning the game.

Women's Own Attitudes and Socialisation.

There are still ingrained attitudes out there about the way women should be and act. We need to be "feminine", "nice" and "good". Dr. Lois Frankel has talked much about this in her book "Nice Girls Don't Get The Corner Office". She says that as grown, educated professional women we tend to act like little girls. We try to keep the peace; we don't rock the boat; we want to keep everyone happy; we take on the caring and nurturing role; we try to please everyone; we try to fit in. This might make everyone like us, but it won't advance our careers. As women we act like that because we don't like the way many men promote themselves. A s Lois Frankel says, however: "Success comes not from acting more like a man, as some might lead you to believe, but by acting more like a woman instead of like a girl.....All it takes," she says, " is acting like the woman you are capable of becoming than the girl you were taught to be."

Women's Styles of Communication.

Aligned with our attitudes and socialisation are some styles of communication that we, as women, favour that also don't help us advance our careers. We tend to favour consensus in decision-making but often over-consult and are then seen to be indecisive and unable to make the hard calls. We favour team work and attribute the success to the team, making our leadership of the team invisible to those who make the decisions about advancement. We tend to be unassertive (confusing it with aggression) and ask permission and apologise often instead of assertively expressing our ideas and intentions. We express ideas as questions, rather than be seen to be putting ourselves forward. There are styles of communication that are highly valued in leadership and management today that women are very good at. We need to fine tune those styles and divest ourselves of those that are part of a past that is no longer relevant to the world in which we are professionally working.

Women's Difficulty with Self-Promotion.

Many of us find it difficult to promote ourselves, our talents and our potential. Even highly successful women, when asked what challenges them most, have acknowledged that they find self-promotion difficult. We need to take much more seriously the importance of consciously building a platform, profile and reputation for ourselves. This is our personal brand.

Women Not Utilising Networking Both Within and Without The Organisation.

In my work with women over many years I have found that many women tend to believe that you advance your career and attain leadership positions by working hard, making a 150% commitment to your organisation, gaining qualifications, getting coaching behind the scenes to improve performance and giving loyalty. Men, on the other hand, believe that your career is advanced by who you are close to, by knowing the right people. They devote significant amounts of time to developing these relationships through networking. They meet the "right" people, get the "right" introductions and belong to the "right" organisations. They take leadership positions on the "right" committees and build their reputation and profile in their industry or professional sector. Women don't generally value the importance of networking to their career advancement and therefore do not utilise it well.

More often than not there is a combination of these barriers creating obstacles for any individual woman. There are, however, always ways through, over and under those barriers, but everything comes at a price. Once we understand what's involved, we can then decide whether we want to pay the price. We can also be inspired by those women who have found creative ways to be who they want to be and achieve what they want to achieve

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Wife, Mother, Professional Woman: The Real Multi-Tasking

I have always been impressed by women's ability to balance the many roles that they are expected to perform in modern society. I must confess, however, that although my experiences has broaden and my sophistication has peaked to new awareness, this phenomenon remains, for me, a social enigma. For this reason I have decided to examine some of the issues surrounding dual careers and how it relates to contemporary women.

The issues of involvement in multiple roles and multiples role strain have long been of interest to social scientists. In addition, these issues have always been central in discussions relating to women of increased labor force participation. For example, the media often features changing roles and alternative family styles, suggesting that fundamental changes in family dymanics are occurring. Most recently, this author had the opportunity to experience two media events of just this nature.

The first event was an article written by Anita Shreve entitled Career and the Lure of Motherhood, New York Times Magazine, November 21, 1982. In her article Ms. Shreve illustrates how many women in today's labor market must be able to juggle the roles of mother, wife and career-woman, and in many instances, that of a student. In essence, she is expected to be a superwoman. The sad part is that often these women are unhappy in their roles as part-time mother and part-time careerist. Too often, such a woman feels inadequate and unfulfilled in either role. These women are caught in what Ms. Shreve called the career-mothering dilemma. Successful career women often feel guilty about not meeting their family responsibilities. They worry, as they steal time for their family, that they are putting their careers in jeopardy. According to Ms. Shreve, these women feel that they are merely support player in the daily activities of their families. It is difficult to determine the toll such stress is having on this population of women; however, the cost to society may be high. Many of these women are employed in high-level positions, in private, as well as in the public sector, and they are a crucial member of today's nuclear family.

If the stress on this population becomes too great, both the nuclear family and the economic productivity of the nation could be seriously affected. Therefore, it is to everyone's benefit to resolve this double-bind. The main ingredient in reaching this goal is to recognize that career-women need understanding and a supportive partners as well as sympathetic employers.

The second event was a televised movie entitled Games Mother Never Taught You, aired November 27, 1982, 9:00 - 11:00 P.M., Ch. 2. In this movie, Ms. Loretta Swit played the leading role as a secretary promoted to a management position. She soon discovered that the stakes are for keeps in a corporate structure where the rules have been made by men. As it turned out, the one casuality of the game was her happy marrage to her husband, played by Mr. Sam Waterston, in the role as co-star. The message here is that women cannot have a successful career and a happy marrage simultaneously.

Contrary to the impression conveyed by the mass media, most American women expect to have a family, including children. At the same time, given the environment of an inflationary economy as well as the sense of autonomy and opportunity encouraged by the feminist movement, an increasing number of women will be combining parenthood with careers in the marketplace. However, to achieve their goal and make some kind of career commitment, many women are postponing parenthood.

While on the other hand, women who marry and immediately start their families are subsequently confronted by the issue of whether or when they should seek salaried employment. In both instances, whether their expectations of themselves are being enchanced by necessity or by choice, women are raising important questions about the sequence and timing of family and career. These questions challenge traditional conceptions of the substance and chronology of generativity as outlined by (Erik Erikson) in women's lives.

Just a few years ago, in mainstream America, a husband had career aspirations and his wife had housework. His strive for success in the corporate world while she stays at home to keep his personal (family) life in order, thereby facilitating his achievement. Occasionally, if she did work outside the home, it was usually on a temporary basis to meet a financial need, or to fill the void after the children were grown. The few women who actively pursued a career were considered selfish wives, inadequate mothers, and in some instances, disgrace to society. The professional woman who combines a professional career with family obligations is under a multiple role strain because she participates in two activity systems where the allocation of time and resources is a problem, and, also, because of the conflicting values that are always present ... her commitment to her career versus her responsibilities to her family. No clear guidelines are available for the individual career woman to follow. The ability to handle the role of wife, mother and career is still, for the most part, a matter of individual adaptation.

Additionally, the business world often presents its own unique pressures and problems. This is true primarily because the business world has not kept pace with the advent of the two career family and the life-styles they adopt to make their career and marriage work. In this society, one is expected to be single-minded and devote all the necessary time in pursuing a career. Many employers will not employ a person for less than full-time. However, if they do, they do not consider the person a full member of the organization. In addition, it is usually expected that the activities of other family members will be subordinated to those of the person pursuing a profession. Therefore, it is extremely difficult to have two fully-developed careers in the same family.

On the other hand, however, some five or ten years into their careers, couples tend to handle duel career conflicts differently. For example, when career needs conflict with family needs, many couples choose family goals over career goals. Experienced couples are more willing to examine alternatives and when necessary, accommodate their spouse. These couples are better able to plan and cope, and they are less reluctant to approach the company with their problems.

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