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Photo: Jacob Lund, YFS Magazine, Adobe Stock

What It’s Like To Be A Woman In the Workplace

Being a woman in the workplace is like walking a tight rope without a safety net - posture is just as important as composure.


Gender discrimination in the workplace isn’t a new concept. For nearly a century, women have combatted misogyny, sexism, verbal and physical harassment, and more, all in the name of workplace equality.

Photo: Alexa Brunet, Director of Writing & PR at BlueTickSocial | Courtesy Photo

Despite the collective agreement on gender discrimination in hiring and advancement being bad practices, women continue to fight for basic, fundamental rights in the U.S. labor market on a daily basis. Equal pay doesn’t necessarily mean gender equality. It’s simply one of the first steps.

According to Pew Research Center, in 2017, an estimated 42% of women in the U.S. labor force stated they had faced gender-based discrimination in the workplace: earning less than their male counterparts, being looked over for critical projects, or combatting verbal and physical harassment at work.

According to 2020 U.S. labor market data, “women earned 84% of what men earned,” according to a Pew Research Center analysis of median hourly earnings of both full- and part-time workers. Based on this estimate, it would take an extra 42 days of work for women to earn what men did in 2020.

“Being a woman in the workplace is like taking an ice-cold sip of what you think is water, and quickly realizing its vodka – you feel the burn either way.”  Lane Tower, Director of Marketing at BlueTickSocial

While reforming hiring and advancement practices in the workplace is a critical step in fostering a gender-equal labor force, it’s just that – a singular step. What we need is a reform of the day-to-day; how we treat each other on a quotidian basis defines our environment.

As stated by Mathematician Lenore Blum during her resignation from Carnegie Mellon University, “Subtle biases and microaggressions pile up, few of which on their own rise to the level of ‘let’s take action,’ but are insidious nonetheless.”

“Being a woman in the workplace is like walking a tight rope without a safety net – posture is just as important as composure.” Alexa Brunet, Director of Writing & PR at BlueTickSocial

Everyone knows the office water jug is a magnet for gossipers and bystanders. What if it was also a place for activists? Granted, a conference room would suffice, too.

In addition to the plethora of microaggressions that women face every day, we must also contend with ourselves internally. At KPMG’s Women’s Leadership Summit, the U.S. audit, tax, and advisory firm polled 750 high-performing executive women who are one or two career steps away from the C-suite; “Seventy-five percent…[reported] having personally experienced imposter syndrome at certain points in their career” and “Eighty-five percent believe[d] imposter syndrome is commonly experienced by women in corporate America.”

Imposter syndrome doesn’t discriminate. High-performing male C-Suite executives feel it too. That being said, research shows that women are told, on average, that they are affected by imposter syndrome at a higher rate; “Imposter syndrome directs our view toward fixing women at work instead of fixing the places where women work.”

“Being a woman in the workplace is like being told to be quiet while speaking.”  Yasmine Khosrowshahi, Founder and CEO of BlueTickSocial

At too young an age, we as women are made conscious of the way we hold ourselves when we eat, drink, converse, and perhaps even sleep. The standards to which society holds us accountable are then self-imposed and translated into our comportment. We shouldn’t disrupt, we shouldn’t voice our opinions, but we should listen. How unreasonably unrealistic.

 

What started as a two-client project in late 2019 quickly scaled to a fully-stacked digital marketing agency by 2020. Having now worked with over 17 different industries, the BlueTickSocial (BTS) team has developed a client portfolio based on the principles of diversity, effective communication, and a strong work ethic. Given that we are a minority-owned and women-led digital marketing agency, we dedicate ourselves to breaking glass barriers and crossing unexplored boundaries not just because we can but because we believe we can. As a dedicated group of five young, professional women, the BlueTickSocial Founders Team is one to be reckoned with as they take brands Beyond The Social.

 

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