"Our struggling" - Part 2

Women are not only challenged by the unwritten rules in the business world, we are also challenged by our education, or rather socialization, and by the absence of the right role models.
Think back, when you grew up, what kind of ladylike behaviors did your parents, teachers or whoever teach you? Being nice and well behaved, smiling, not being loud or cheeky, keeping your arms close to your body, and so on. All those small things that are considered to be ladylike. Now as grown-ups we do all of this unconsciously. After years of practice, those behaviors became just natural to us. And in the business world they turn into mistakes. Unconscious mistakes. All these ladylike behaviors have the potential to undermine our professional success. Because we appear shy, or not tough enough, we might be considered less likely for leadership functions or even just the next step on the career ladder.

And then there is another trap lying in front of us, so obvious that we don't see it. Our society obviously expects from us, that we are the embodiment of sexiness. Wherever we look, women that we see in television or magazines teach us one thing: How to be sexy. Nobody teaches us, how to appear competent. We are definitely missing the right role models. A survey by Catalyst confirms that 64% of women see the absence of role models as barriers to their careers. And not only that this absence complicates our career progress, on top of this we are working against our career, when we dress sexily at work. A study by Arthur Brief et al. from the Tulane University proves that women who dress sexily at work get less often promoted and earn less money than women who don't. These facts should make us think. And it is not the end of our struggling in the business world. Read what else is there in Part 3 of this series.