04Expand

Expand your professional and business interactions with women.

Image shows the alphabet E in a large size with the word expand written next to it.

What Women Want

  • To be equally considered for challenging, high- profile opportunities and career advancement
  • To be included in formal and informal networking
  • To be given direct feedback
  • To have access to senior leaders
  • To be sponsored in addition to being mentored

The Problem

Many managers believe that women have equal opportunities in the workplace because their companies have inclusive and family-friendly practices, like maternity leave or family leave, equal pay standards, and women’s leadership development programs. But that’s not the case.

Removing structural barriers to women’s success is imperative, yet insufficient. To change the status quo, we must also remove social barriers and improve our day-to-day interactions.

It’s easier for all of us to interact with and give feedback to people who are most like us (in terms of gender, race, age, and so on). Since most managers and leaders are men, this means that male managers interact less frequently with the women in their offices than they do with the men.

Further, an analysis of 80 different studies revealed that women were more effective leaders in female-dominated and female-oriented settings, and that men were more effective leaders in male- dominated and male-oriented settings.1

When men believe in men, they champion them, give them direct ...

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