Have you thought about how gender impacts your career? Well, you definitely will think about it if you ever become a mother. Why? Because the stereotypes about working moms can really hurt your job and promotion prospects.
How Gender Impacts Your Career: The Choice You Need To Make
Young women don’t usually have a huge problem with discrimination. Feminism has made a lot of progress in that area. Men and women start out being hired at fairly equal rates (in developed countries, at least). It’s different when you hit your late 20s and 30s. You’ll have a difficult choice to make: Do you want to have children now or will you concentrate on your career instead?
Watch this short video I recorded to learn more about how gender impacts your career especially as a working mom.
The Damaging Stereotypes About Working Moms
The difficulties that come with bearing children over the age of 40 are well-known. What’s not often talked about is the damage you do to your career by having children just when it’s starting to take off. Watch my video “Closing The Pay Gap For Working Moms | How Can Gender Parity Be Achieved?” to learn about what happens if you decide to take time off to care for your child.
And even if you don’t take time off, the stereotypes about working moms will really hurt your career. You’ve probably heard them: “A working mother isn’t reliable. She’s not committed to her job.” As if parenting were some kind of sin! Then you’ll really see how gender impacts your career—working fathers don’t face this kind of job discrimination.
Some employers have gotten it into their heads that moms are lazy. Anyone who’s ever spent the whole day with children knows that’s not true. Kids are hard work! Balancing the demands of work and family actually makes you a more capable and resourceful person, not less so. Dealing with rational adults, no matter how difficult, is a relief after trying to get a toddler to daycare on time.
We need to get rid of these negative stereotypes about working moms for good. How gender impacts your career shouldn’t be based on doing a job that our entire society depends on—which is raising the next generation.
Let’s Grow,
Beate
Beate Chelette is the Founder of The Women’s Code and serves as the Programming Chair for the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO-LA). Once $135,000 in debt and a single mother, she successfully sold her business to Bill Gates in a multi-million dollar deal.
Beate’s supports organizations two-fold. Beate provides leadership development programs for organizations that want to implement the ROI of Balanced Leadership through The Women’s Code, her signature system that educates leaders and helps companies achieve gender equality. The Women’s Code creates and implements programs that improve organizational culture, foster productive work environments and help companies improve their people ROI.
As The Growth Architect she creates outreach and sponsorship programs through customized Entrepreneur skills training following the 5 Star Success Blueprint that shows step-by-step how to grow, build and scale businesses.
Beate is a respected speaker and mentor and is the author of the #1 International Amazon Bestseller “Happy Woman Happy World – How to Go From Overwhelmed to Awesome”, a book that corporate trainer and best-selling author Brian Tracy calls “a handbook for every woman who wants health, success and a fulfilling career.”
If you’d like to book Beate as a speaker on Leadership or Entrepreneurship for your next event please connect here.