For women to achieve their goals means we have to change our thinking and align with who we are at our core.
Men and women are different. I know that is terribly obvious, but that difference has not been fully appreciated. I watched a news broadcast yesterday in which a seemingly shocking revelation had been made. Women were being poisoned by a medication long prescribed as best practice in the treatment of a particular disorder. The problem being all the medical research had been done on men. The assumption was what was good for men was good for women. Not true! Medical researchers are bringing forth a new understanding that women are different from men including our physiology. The aspirin a day plan to prevent heart attacks is based on research on men and now being studied to see if that is true for women. I have never agreed that standard dosages prescribed for medications or vitamins could possibly be the same for men and women!
What is true for men is not always true for women. We know this for medical science and it is also true in business. Women are different from men. Do we have to behave like men to succeed or like the medical research community, do those in the business world have to learn to understand and work with women in a new way?
Forty years ago women who wanted to succeed had to match male energy, be a leader as a man would. Women did, and they succeeded but at a price. Working like a man is uncomfortable for women. It prevents us from creating success that serves our lives and enjoying our success.
There is research on women professionals and women business owners. It stresses that women are paid less, generate less revenue and have a smaller share of the market. There are those who call for reform. They want society to do something so that women get more. I wonder if that is the correct approach. I agree that women can and should create their vision of success though women do not hold the same values as men. Maybe all women do not want the biggest salary, the biggest business or scale the corporate ladder in the same way that men have. We value family so want to create a successful business or profession that supports our lives. We want to have a business and profession that supports our values and not always about being on top.
The greater tragedy is when women get in competition with other women. That form of competition is a male concept that does not work in support of feminine values. Every women can succeed. The notion that either I succeed or she does is not true. The concept of winner and loser is a male concept. It is most discouraging to me to see women who run multi-million dollar businesses look down on women who run smaller businesses or are solopreneurs. Women are different in what we value and what we choose to create big or small. That competition between large and small women owned businesses are a reflection of operating on male concepts of success. The male paradigm is bigger is better. The female paradigm is to create, have everyone feel valued and create something of value.
As we move forward each woman has to assess for herself what she wants to create, for what purposes and for what value. It is my hope that women can achieve goals that support who they are at their core and what they value. It is my hope that the business community opens their eyes to understand that women create differently than men. Finally, and most importantly women work to support other women.
I would love to hear your views.
Best wishes on your success, Kay