One of my good friends is in the finance industry, and she’s ambitious. She wants to move up. So a frequent topic of conversation for us is “how to succeed as a woman at work.”
You’ve got to be assertive … but not too assertive or you’re seen as a b—buster. You’ve got to be nice … but not too nice or you’re seen as a pushover. You’ve got to look good (put together, well-groomed, nice nails) … but not too good, or you’re seen as using your sexuality to get ahead.
It’s a fine balance – and one with very real career implications.
The fact is, while many of us wish there were more women leaders, women are still in the minority when it comes to leadership positions in most industries.
In fields like manufacturing and energy, women hold fewer than 20 percent of leadership positions. Those rates are barely inching up: over the past decade, the percentage of female leaders jumped an average of just over two points across 12 industries studied by LinkedIn.
