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... :)