FEMMES TO THE FRONT
Did you know that approximately only 1 in 3 Americans have a woman for a boss?
That statistic always makes me feel sort of funny.
On the one hand I’m not surprised at all.
Truth is, I haven’t had a boss in close to a decade, self employment for the win, BUT when I did have a boss of one form or another they were mostly dudes.
MY RIDE OR DIES FROM THE WEEK I MET MY WIFE.
At the same time the stat sort of knocks the wind out of my sails. <— See what I did there, a strange mixing of metaphors. But it felt right. More vicious than just taking the wind, you know?
Back on track.
I thought we had come further.
I thought that feminism had made at least the workplace more equal; nope.
WRONG.
Something like 60% of college graduates are women these days, and yet the C-Suite, still the same boys’ club where women are smashing the doors down, one corner office at a time.
Although the momentum is starting to shift, the facts are still the facts.
Only 1 in 3 Americans have a woman for a boss.
This means that the information we are subconsciously picking up around us day in and day out says that men are twice as awesome at being the boss. We all know that isn’t true, both deep down in our bones, and then also just the scientific evidence that is Jacinda Ardern Queen Goddess aka prime minister of New Zealand.
I mean she’s showing us how it all should be done, while having a GD BABY IN OFFICE!!! WHILE SURVIVING DOMESTIC TERRORISTS, GUN CONTROL AND EVERYTHING ELSE!
And yet.
That doesn’t change the little voice inside of us (myself included ‘cause 31 years of being socialized as a girl) that says, “Someone else will probably do it better,” or “If I just do a good enough job someone will notice, it’s not polite to brag,” or “I’m not fill in the blank,” the one that says “just be happy with what you have, play small, play safe.”
That voice says we have to be perfect, not persistent.
Here’s the thing though, just because someone says something, it doesn’t make it true, no matter how hard Trump tries. That voice in our heads isn’t true either. But it can become a self-fulfilling prophecy ready to steal our lunch money and give the promotion to the guy down the hall.
It’s time to let our inner knowing get louder than the world around us. It’s time to work against our own unconscious biases (weirdly enough, women have them too, see above). It means getting bigger, and braver than ever feels comfortable, but mediocre white guys have been doing it for centuries so I think it’s time to one up ‘em.
Let’s change that number. Femmes to the front!
I’ll be there popping the champagne when you get that corner office.