like a man going into a field that’s mostly female dominated or a woman going into a field that’s mostly male dominated.
how do you survive and gain confidence? obviously there’s more pressure to prove that you can be just as good or better and that a person’s gender shouldn’t be the focus.
anybody else in the same boat? what do you tell yourself to keep pushing and being good at your job.
Re: jobs that have gender imbalance
I was once out in a Senior Sales Team that was all men …
The problem: They were all very highly qualified , quite aggressive consultants , since I was the only girl in the team, I was constantly being made to feel inferior, comments like “ohhh that client is a xxxx , you wont be able to deal with him, one of us will have to do it " .. or other things like " told you, this isnt a job for the delicates” !! I even got told once that a tricky client wasnt getting tamed so they would have to send a bond girl in to settle thngs out ! and that was a direct harassment to me…
In the beginning I used to cry alot and felt bullied … and a colleague suggested I put in a case for gender harrassment … after giving it a good thought, I decided that I wasnt going to take the easy route .. and will fight back. So I made huge changes to my attitude to fit into the team … Focused more on my work so I dont make any mistakes … and responded firmly to any comments thrown at me …
In another case , a guy took up the role of the receptionist. He was laughed at much by his friends who kept asking him, why he couldnt have found a guy’s job… clearly that was very distressing for him but two years on , he is a confident man and going great in his job … Again he realized in time that attitude and effort are the two key things that help you maintain your confidence … be good at your job and learn to focus your attention on positive aspects of the job rather then the comments by irrelevant people around.
you have to ask yourself , why you are doing this job? is it making you happy? is it contributing to your career/expertise? Are you good at it? If the answer is a strong yes , then it doesnt matter what gender you are … carry on with a zeal and remember that the best person in a job is not the one who is a certain gender but the one who excels at the dynamics of the job.
Re: jobs that have gender imbalance
It’s as Aimee says; focus on the work.
Respect usually needs to be earned. Become awesome at your work, and gender will cease to be a serious issue.
Re: jobs that have gender imbalance
thanks both of you, that makes total sense and really motivating, don’t know why i didn’t think of that before… 