This month’s training is all about working in male-dominated workplaces.
Video Transcript
Katie: Your tip for January, tip for the month is working in a male-dominated workplace.
Carol: We know that not all of you work in a male-dominated workplace but a lot of you do and if you think about it, men are always out there so listen in, even if you don’t work in a male-dominated workplace.
Katie: You’ll get something out of it because those women that do work in an environment where it’s – I’m not saying it’s like a locker room. Although that is one of the problems with male-dominated workplaces is they sometimes tip over into that and you get the good ol’ boys network or you get conversations that are inappropriate to have around women. Not even that extreme, just being a minority brings up for us a reminder that sometimes our voice isn’t heard.
Rosebeth Moss Kanter from Harvard Business School had done a study regarding what happens when minorities try to have a voice and at what point is the tipping point?
This works for women in leadership as well. It works for any minority in any environment but for women in a workplace environment, if you are anything under 30 percent representation, you tend not to be heard. You tend to be an anomaly. Any minority ends up being somewhat of an anomaly when they are not at the 30 percent point.
So once you get past that and you think of the Supreme Courts, which has I believe it’s nine justices and I believe we’ve been toying with 2 or 3 women. Well remember when Sandra Day O’Connor was the first women. It was huge. It was an issue and then we had the second one and then we had the third one and we’ve got three right now I believe. Now it’s not an issue any more. So it was a tipping point.
Carol: And I still believe that really we need to get to the 50 percent since we are 50 percent of the population. That makes more sense and it’s better representation.
We do believe that but we’re happy with 30 percent if we can get there. Let’s put for our first goal is 30 percent. And honestly if you are in a male-dominated workplace, you may not even see that as a possibility. Thirty percent in your leadership may not be a possibility but here are some things you can do.
There is a lot of research on our website and one of the pieces of research is about bringing more women into your leadership. So if you have somebody that might look at this – somebody in your leadership, even if it’s a male, this is a piece written by a man, and I cannot for the life of me remember the name of it. Can you?
Katie: I will add it to the bottom and we’ll have it scroll along the bottom.
Carol: Okay. It’s a great piece and it should be read by the men in leadership because they need to understand why it’s so important to get women in leadership and can we just tell you why it is?
Katie: Yes tell us.
Carol: Okay some of the reasons are that we are not managing widgets anymore. We are not managing time as much anymore. We are managing humans in the world. We are managing knowledge.
Katie: Intellect, relationships.
Carol: Women are good at that. That’s what we’ve done for millennia. We have managed relationships. We’ve managed families. We’ve managed just getting along.
Katie: Community. Communications.
Carol: We’re great at communication.
Katie: Projects.
Carol: So those are some of the reasons.
Katie: The grocery store.
Carol: Some of the reasons that –
Katie: Am I helping?
Carol: You’re really just bugging.
Katie: Keep going, just ignore me.
Carol: So far. And you could help on this one. You are the one who has worked in the male-dominated workplace.
Katie: Yes as an engineer in my first career and it was interesting. Actually it was pretty darned interesting. I enjoyed it.
Carol: She did enjoy it and Katie always has fun with pretty much everything she does and that is a great trait to have if you are going to work in a place enjoy what you do.
And if you struggle, if you are struggling to get into that leadership position because we heard from some women who say, “I’ve applied for all of those jobs and I never get them and I don’t know why and it’s just not possible here.”
Well it is possible. Believe that it is possible and start reading some of the research that goes behind this. Try to get some of your group to read the research.
Katie: HR, women’s organizations, if you’ve got a network at your workplace.
Carol: And can I say that joining Skirt Strategies as a member is a great step. That’s where you get the background to have the confidence to take these things to your leadership and say, “Look, this is happening in the rest of the world. Now it’s time for us to step up and to become –“
Katie: It’s almost a duty.
Carol: Well yeah it is.
Katie: Do what the world needs now. So those of you that are members of Skirt Strategies and subscribe to the monthly membership, you know that we’ll go each week into a little bit more depth regarding the male-dominated work environment, some tips. We’ll challenge you with how to work on some things. We’ll give you some time to focus on your intent.
Those of you that subscribe to the free monthly, here’s your video. This is it and stay in tune with us. We’d love hearing more from you. We’ll be onto it in detail left and right and boy, love it.
Carol: And don’t forget to buy the book.
Katie: The book is out this month.
Carol: And I need to show you the whole thing. There it is. There’s Katie and there’s me.
Katie: Okay thanks everyone.
(Music plays)
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