If you have ever wondered what you can do in your career to pave the way for other women, aside from being there as a working woman yourself, you are not alone. As working women, many, if not most of us, are keenly aware of the challenges we face in the workplace, from lack of gender equity to the glass ceiling and pay gap. As we strive to overcome these challenges and ascend to higher levels, we also aspire to give back by sharing what we’ve learnt along the way and hold the door open for our fellow working women coming alongside and behind us.
Yet, the question often arises as to how exactly, other than through our own examples, we can open doors for other women at work.
We all have different ways of working and relating to others. As such, we may serve our fellow working women in different ways, none better than the other, all effective at unlocking the gates of success for all. In my own career, I’ve had the privilege of benefiting from the experience, wisdom and extraordinary compassion of other women who have shepherded me along my path, each in their own way. I have learnt from them that there are many ways of paying it forward to other women, and turning open the hard locks sealing closed so many of the career doors standing in their way.
Here are 7 ways to open doors for other women at work:
Invite other women into your network
Do you see a woman around you who has great potential? Does one of the women in your department, company, or institution do exceptional work? There may be an opportunity for you to get to know her better, and possibly tell your friends about her, share her story, and help her obtain bigger and better opportunities.
Serve as a mentor
Mentoring is one of the most powerful ways to overcome gender inequity, especially for women who are still ascending to the top of their careers. These are the women who desperately need to learn from other women who have been there before them, and have successfully passed the same or similar tests they are facing. Mentoring these women can not only take them to the next level, but also reveal new and overlooked talent.
Champion other mentors by being a sponsor
While a mentor can come from a different company or industry, a sponsor tends to be more internal and act more proactively to endorse and provide opportunities for an individual. Sponsoring other women is particularly powerful as it allows for increased opportunities for females as well as more female leadership.
Create a community
Too often, women do not feel welcome in their organizations, and/or at higher levels of influence. Opening spheres of influence, and formerly closed doors to female leadership, has the potential of fostering stronger communities of belonging. By doing this, diversity and inclusion can become larger than inanimate policies and procedures, but real human communities.
Be a change agent
So often, as working women, we may experience a sense of guilt as we work on our own careers. We may feel that our efforts are too focused on us, and are not contributing to elevating other women. However, every time we reach a milestone, every time we sit at the table, enter the room or voice our opinion, we’re registering yet another win for other women. Just by being in the room, we are change agents, thus creating the opportunity for others to do the same and even better.
Share your story
Women’s stories are powerful. They are the fabric of our society, the rhythm of our communities and the voices of our people. However, too often, they get muted and silenced by fear, conformism, and lack of focus.
Sharing our stories as working women is yet another way of hurling the door of opportunity open for so many women, eagerly waiting to see their own stories validated, believed and reinforced.
Believe women
Last but not least, listen to the women around you. Believe their stories and testimonies, and allow them to have a voice where they may not have been authorized to do so before. This may mean welcoming another woman to the table, advocating for another woman, or sharing another woman’s business or resources.
How will you be opening doors for other women at work?
In my lifetime, as an immigrant, I have had the opportunity to witness the first American Black president Barack Obama, and now the first woman of color Vice-President. Yet, even more importantly, I’ve had the opportunity to witness my own children witnessing these historical achievements. It’s the opportunity to see them not only take in what is happening, but never have to doubt again that seeing a Black president, or a woman vice-president, can exist.
The wall of firsts has effectively been shattered, and with it the door of opportunity open for generations coming behind. Such is the power, yet also the burden, of being the first.
The first to break barriers.
The first to enter the room.
The first to create change.
The first to open the door of Change…
Today, Kamala Harris is the first to walk through the doors of the White House as the first one to be called “Madam Vice-President”. What she’s also doing is demonstrating the power of being the first, and making the seemingly impossible possible. What she’s doing is planting the seed of Possibility in the hearts of women and little girls everywhere, and dispelling the myth and fear attached with being the first.
Many of us are called to be firsts, in an official sense. However, all of us have the ability to open doors for other women coming alongside or behind us, in our own unique way. It may be in our unique way of handling an issue, in our innovative manner of tackling a problem, in the diversity of thought and creativity we bring to the table, in just being authentically ourselves.
What Kamala Harris, and all the other women whose shoulders she stands on, really did, doesn’t solely consist in showing us what is possible and opening the door for the rest of us. Most importantly, it’s normalizing for all of us the ability to open doors for any woman coming alongside or behind us, in our own capacity, position and ability.
Dear Working Mom is our periodic letter to working moms everywhere, where we talk about the challenges, joys and everything in between for working moms…
Dear Working Mom,
Remember when Miranda admitted to Charlotte in the Sex and the City sequel movie that although she loves her son, motherhood isn’t enough for her, and that she misses her job? And Charlotte finally steps out of her “perfect wife and mother” golden picture frame, to reveal how much motherhood is wearing her thin. Every time I watch the movie, this particular scene has me bawling and let out a sigh of relief all at the same time. Hearing some of the dirtiest, most shameful secrets of real motherhood finally expressed in raw, inelegant words, felt like a weight lifted off the back of the myth of sacro-saint motherhood.
If you’ve ever felt the impossibly immense love of a mother for her children, and yet sensed the pull of your passion, your art, your work tugging at your heartstrings, you may understand what this is. This often forbidden truth that the beauty of motherhood is also laced with complex emotions, desires and instincts. That as working mothers, we can miss our kids when we’re at work, while simultaneously love our careers. That we can be filled with the most complete love and joy for our children and families, while still sensing the pull and void of something else. That motherhood is beautifully complicated, that it can be everything and not enough at the same time, engulfing us whole at times and pushing us to want more out of ourselves at once…
If you’ve found yourself in this complicated, grey area where guilt and love coexist, you’re not alone. If you’ve dropped your baby off at the baby sitter after maternity leave and cried in your car before heading off to work, yet found a sense of purpose as you started working again, you’re not alone. If you’ve struggled with defining your identity within and outside of the confines of motherhood, you’re not alone. Most likely, this dilemma of a dance between identities may just last a lifetime. And you may never get the soothing answer to your doubts, the solution to your struggle, or the remedy to your situation…
Yet what you may know, through it all, is that you tried your very best. That even though you missed out some milestones because you were at work, you still were there when it counted. Even though you let go of some promotions, left some jobs, and bowed out of some opportunities, it was all worth it. And although when you’re at work, you’re not home, and vice-versa, you strive to be the best you can where you are…
Because it’s true, sometimes motherhood is everything, and sometimes it’s not enough…And it’s ok…
Welcome to our news roundup Let it be Friday! This is our first News Roundup of 2021! This is where we gather all the news and tips that impact us as working women and working moms, share a few laughs, and encourage each other in the process. Here we go…
We’re starting this year with the Career Reinvention Series, focused on helping working women and moms chart out the path for their own career reinvention. In this first part, we’re discussing reinventing our mindsets to begin this process.
Thanks for Listening!
Thanks so much for tuning in and listening to this week’s episode! If you enjoyed this week’s episode, please share it by using the social media at the bottom of this post!
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