Is The Workplace Really Welcoming To Women?
Women in the career place have really made great strides in the last twenty to thirty years. Many still argue that women are not treated fairly in the workplace, but sadly this can be said about all minorities. The great thing is that today women can find their place in any career that they choose, as long as they have the motivation to succeed.
Discrimination and glass ceilings are still very real, but if you know how to confront these issues you can succeed and your skills will transcend any limitations other people may try to persuade you to buy into.
The first thing that women need in order to succeed in any career field is motivation. With motivation and an attitude that will help you push beyond any limitations other people may try to put in place. While most people welcome women into the workforce, others believe that they shouldn’t reach certain levels, that they should be as successful as men, or that they shouldn’t hold executive positions. As long as you never buy into these ideas you’ll find that you can go as far as you want in any career of your choice. The women that ignore the ideas and limitations that other people believe in can go as far as they set their sights.
Education will play a pivotal role in a woman’s ability to succeed in the career of her choice. Men often find that they don’t need advance degrees to land great jobs, but women frequently find that the standards that apply to men don’t apply to women. The way that women can combat the double standards is just to reach for the stars and back up their abilities and goals with education. Advanced degrees and experience are hard to turn down, and any employer worth working for will realize this. If you take the time to get a great education you’ll find that getting a job in any career of your choice is much easier. It doesn’t seem fair that a woman has to attain an advanced degree, but in the end you’ll end up better off and it’s more about being able to climb the corporate ladder much more quickly as well as being able to earn more in the jobs that you do have.
In addition to education, experience will help women move forward in the career place. Many women believe that they’ll be able to get by in the corporate field just because they fulfill the companies’ need to hire minorities, but this isn’t always good enough. Women are often promoted more quickly when they have both education and experience under their belt. Many employers stop treating men and women differently when women show that they have the motivation to get educated and experienced before they enter the workforce. When you have the triple threat of motivation, education, and experience you stop being a certain sex or minority and you really start to be an asset to the company that you work for. Experience can be gained through part time jobs, internships, apprenticeships, and course study to show that you have a real drive to be as educated and as experienced as possible.
When you start to apply for jobs and you begin interviewing, you should get a feel for how well women are accepted with each company. You can usually do research into the company before you accept a job to determine if there is a glass ceiling or limitations as to the promotion and nurturing of female employees. If you do not feel as though women are considered as important as men in this particular environment, you should try your luck elsewhere. While you’ll usually find that most companies treat women fairly, every once in awhile you’ll find that women are not promoted as often as men or in accordance with their ratio of men to women, and men and women in the same position aren’t paid on a similar pay scale. In situations like this, it’s hard to change the employer’s mind and you will be well advised to find a company that will realize what an asset your motivation, education, and experience are to them from day one.
The career place has become a lot friendlier to women in recent years, but it’s still not perfect. The imperfection and limitations that professional women often face is why we have to keep arming ourselves with education and experience, so we can continue to show our excellence again and again. The vast majority of women entering the workforce will no longer experience limitations based on their gender, but the incidence of discrimination is even less common when you get educated.
Today there truly is no limitation as to the jobs that women can hold. Thirty to fifty years ago it was common for women to hold nursing and educational jobs, but today women can be doctors, lawyers, executives, and even politicians. The common element that these women have is motivation. Any person, male or female, has to be motivated to land a great job, but often times women have to work just a bit harder.
Education is your best defense, because when you obtain a degree you’ll find that your sex becomes unimportant and you’ll be given more chances. Women have proven time and time again that they are worthy, so if you hit a glass ceiling or people that want to hold you back, keep pushing so that you can continue to pave the way for change.
While the workplace still can try to hold women back, as women continue to be motivated to climb higher and do better we’ll find that the differences between the way men and women are treated in the workplace will become smaller and smaller. Careers for women are as diverse as we want them to be, education, experience, and motivation will just help us get there a little bit faster with the best pay and treatment out there.
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