Women who have professional careers are very confident in their apearance

But are they as confident in business meetings?

Women in the Workplace: The Myth of the Confidence Gap.

True or false?

1. 
   Confidence is seen as a necessary positive leadership trait and women are not promoted as far or as fast as men because they don’t demonstrate confidence.
2. Women are less confident in their abilities than men.
3. Women need to step forward, lean in, be more assertive, demonstrate confidence, claim a seat at the table.
4. Women who are confident and assertive are often seen as unlikeable, unpromotable and less likely to be hired.

Take-charge behavior is rewarded when exhibited by men and punished when exhibited by women.
No one (male or female) likes a shrill, bossy woman. 

Alas, the answers to all of the above, with the exception of number two, are, more or less, “true.”

Recent research suggests that the widely held idea that women are less confident in their abilities than men is an incorrect interpretation of appearances. This alleged lack of confidence has been cited as one of the contributors to inequity in promotions and the poor representation of women at the top levels of corporate leadership.

 In fact, women are likely equally confident, but warier of self-promotion, and for good reason. They may accurately perceive that self-assertion will lead to less acceptance rather than more.

A therapist recently summarized the emerging research on the false premise behind the so-called confidence gap in an excellent article in the Atlantic. The problem isn’t that women aren’t confident but that confidence in women is not rewarded in the work world.

The therapist concludes that the onus to change is on the workplace. Rather than exhorting women to up their confidence game, each workplace must make deliberate efforts to track and acknowledge everyone’s work contributions and develop “specific policies and collective structural changes, [which] would do far more to help women get their work recognized than any pep talks aimed at boosting their personal confidence.”

That’s all good, but there is another layer to the problem.

Gender Norms

A competitive, powerful, forceful woman surging forward with her own agenda is simply not complying with widely held gender norms. As a result, she tends to make people uncomfortable if not resentful, angry and alienated. Despite the emergence of “non-binary” thinking about gender, gender norms are not just going to disappear. They are psychological and cultural structures that persist for generations and are deeply resistant to change. 

 The gender norm for women continues to include the expectation that a woman will have a greater focus on the community around her—looking out for others’ needs, tempering her own drives, making sure everyone is doing okay. And really, that’s not such a bad thing.

Pretty much the opposite is true for men. A hard-driving man promoting his own agenda is seen as a promising leader. But a man who is finely attuned to the emotional experience of others and focused on the overall good of the group is likely to be seen as weak.

The solution is straightforward if not easy to sell or implement. Incentives need to be put in place so that all of us, of whatever gender, are encouraged—or even forced—to exhibit behaviors of the opposite gender norm and these behaviors have to be rewarded.

What would this look like in practice? Here are a few ideas.

• Managers could make sure that women speak first in team meetings—or at a minimum make sure that they speak at all. This is especially important when calls include remote participants.
• “Talking over” a woman could be framed as bad for the 
• company and bad for business and called out whenever it occurs.
• Women team members could be asked to lead presentations to a larger group whenever possible.
• Men could be asked for their assessment of the potential impact of decisions on various stakeholders. This might train them to be more adept on the empathic community-scanning behavior that most women do automatically.

In a recent article about Google, I wrote that the company is proud that there is a 0% gender pay difference in their workforce. And justifiably so. Other companies can’t make that claim.

But that statistic refers to the fact that women and men doing the same job are making the same pay. The disproportionate presence of men in higher—and therefore better paying—leadership positions is tremendous. Only one of Google’s top five executives, CFO and Senior VP of a corporation is a woman. And of their top 35 

executives, only 23% are women.

What do these numbers tell us?  That to a large extent, change towards greater diversity is going to come down to the commitment and actions of men. And when it relates to racial diversity, to white men. Men sitting in a board meeting are going to have to ask, “Why aren’t more women in the room?” White men at a leadership team meeting are going to have to ask, “Why aren’t more women and people of color in this meeting?”

Then they have to practice the leadership competence of empathy. 

They have to wonder what it is like for women or other minorities in a leadership group. They have to think about—and act upon—what would make it easier for “outsiders,” because that’s what women and minorities are, to feel comfortable with power, with speaking out, with speaking up.

Final thought

Believe it or not, of the 7.8 billion inhabitants on this Earth, women are the majority. Ironically, numbers are not in their favor and women worldwide enjoy only a fragment of the rights of men. And although a lot has been done to improve social mores and implement reforms to empower women, gender inequality in the workforce persists.

Tech companies, for example, nourish a cycle of hiring same-gender employees. The latest women in the workforce statistics reveal that only 26% of jobs in computer-related sectors are occupied by women. 

The purpose of this post, however, is to explore women’s representation in the workforce and show that despite the hurdles, women are leaping across mountains and taking on the role of breadwinners.