Ambitious Women Face Major Obstacles in The Workplace, Too

If you are a woman in the workplace today, more than likely you experience some challenges to your success because of gender. Gender bias is prevalent across all industries and often reveals itself in different ways. Maybe it’s subtle, like an exclusion from an important meeting or perhaps it’s more obvious with an off-color joke or disparaging sexist remark from your boss or co-worker. Whatever the form of bias, it undermines the ambition of high-achieving women who have the potential to be our future leaders.

Women enter the workforce with optimism and ambition as noted in a 2014 study by Bain & Company and my own research on women and ambition highlighted in the new study, Lost Leaders in the Pipeline, which I co-authored with Lisa Mainiero. In my survey of 615 professional women ranging in age from 22 to 50+, from a variety of industries, 74 percent of the respondents self-identified as very/extremely ambitious. Those who reported they were most ambitious stated that when faced with unconscious bias, gender stereotypes, and unfriendly workplace practices that create an uneven playing field, they experienced gender fatigue. As a result, their goal to reach a leadership position no longer seemed realistic or favorable.

Although reasons for diminished ambition have been largely attributed to the decision to have children; that is only one piece of a complicated puzzle. Women state that a lack of opportunity for advancement, lack of acknowledgement and support from their managers, and an absence of female role models all contribute to their waning ambition.

When asked what obstacles most contributed to their diminished ambition, the respondents of the survey cited these challenges as the most damaging:

• Workplace bias

Women stated they are not valued. They are paid less than men, sexually harassed, excluded from the boy’s club, blocked from advancement, and discriminated against based on age, race, and culture.

Here are some direct quotes:

“My interest in being ambitious at work stopped when I saw how the management would take advantage of women by talking them into taking on more responsibility with the promise of greater pay and change of title, but then would later give the position (and pay) to a male with little to no experience.”

“When the stark reality of the wage gap and gender bias slapped me in the face. After I left a previous job, I was mentoring a male intern whom I trained at that job to try and fill the gap left by my leaving. He asked me to help him negotiate his salary and that’s when I saw that they offered him significantly more in their first offer than they did me. I had more experience than him when I started working there (it was not my first job out of college but it was his).”

“I allowed my male peers to make me believe that I was intimidating when I was really just being as strong as they were.”

• Corporate culture

Women reported an environment of favoritism, destructive office politics, lack of recognition, cutthroat environments, and unethical behavior.

One women commented on this:

“Internal politics and people stepping on top of other people’s heads have probably been the two most prevalent factors. While I am ambitious, I draw the line when being ambitious means either stepping on others or being a shameless self-promoter.”

• Difficult managers/colleagues

The respondents stated their managers (and some colleagues) blocked opportunities, felt threatened and were unsupportive.

“A male boss was openly threatened by my influence and power within the organization and actively blocked me from opportunities to advance (he literally told me in a year-end review once that I needed to me ‘more passive’ and ‘lean back’). When I asked what opportunities for a broader variety of work were (not even asking for a promotion), he said ‘none.’ I ended up leaving the organization.”

• Lack of opportunity

Women reported that a lack of opportunities had a negative impact on their ambition.

“After working and attending school full-time, I graduated and began to apply for roles within the organization I had worked for longer than a decade. Not only was I not granted one opportunity for advancement, I felt as if I was being consciously blocked from opportunities to advance. That was disheartening and began to wear on my self-esteem. It was hard to move past.”

Other obstacles reported included unsupportive women, and being discounted or marginalized for having children.

What can we do to help women advance in the workplace? It is up to all of us to support and encourage our female colleagues to own their ambition and talent. We must help promote each other for the value we bring to the table, bond together to call out bias as we witness it, and help our female colleagues to be heard and recognized in meetings. Most importantly, we need to abandon our own bias and fears that prevent us from insisting on a level playing field and standing up for gender parity.

By Bonnie Marcus, M.Ed, CEC
Photo by Ienetstan