Women
often remain unheard within the workplace, particularly in business settings
which are dominated by men. Often times women will remain silent, because they
assume their ideas or opinions will be overlooked, or a male colleague will
attempt to take credit for their proposal. According to Entrepreneur.com, women
working within the Obama administration started using a method called amplification, “When a
woman proposed an insight or solution, the other women would repeat it in
agreement to amplify the point. This helped everyone, both men and women,
recognize the contribution coming from the woman who first proposed the idea”
(Lee, 2017). We often see a competitive atmosphere in business among women, because they
feel they need to be harder and less empathetic in order to advance at the same
pace that their male coworkers can. The only way that women can create an
atmosphere that will create opportunities for the advancement and promotion of
women within the business world, is if it starts with the handful of female
business leaders currently at the forefront of the industry today. This is
where motivation, support, and comprehensive mentorship programs play a crucial
role, “One way to start is
by motivating women at schools and universities. I recently spoke to
ambitious female students at Columbia’s Business Women’s Leadership Conference
about the importance of helping other women amplify, network and build
businesses. You could also start a women’s mentorship group, or
find an individual to mentor, at your company or school. It can be as easy
as a meeting every month to serve as an advocate for a fellow woman to
discuss ideas on how to address situations at work, switching careers or
pitching for promotions” (Lee, 2017).
As a woman going through my academic studies, I always hungered to learn more. My hand has always been the first to go up, then one day I sat back and left my hand down and looked around me…I was the only woman raising their hand. It appeared that even in courses where the male professors were inclusive of women, and teaching content related to diversity and feminism, women were apprehensive to lean in and share their thoughts. I wondered why this was, and when embarking upon this project decided to look deeper into the issue of gender-bias and female success. According to a study conducted by the Columbia University Teaching Center, “while women now constitute 57 percent of U.S. college students, gender inequalities still persist in the classroom. Instructors were found to call on male students more frequently than female students and were less likely to elaborate upon points made by female students…The Columbia study also found that male students spoke more frequently
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