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Opinion I want to stop women feeling like frauds in a corporate culture designed for our grandfathers

A co-founder of the Sunday Business Post, Aileen O’Toole learned some valuable lessons about operating in a male-dominated sector.

WHAT WAS IT like to have been the only female working in male-dominated sector? It’s a question I’ve been asked many times over the course of my professional life. The answer I used to give was that as a business journalist, being female was an advantage, as stories sometimes came my way more easily than with my male colleagues. Also, I’d reply, I achieved much in my early career thanks to a highly supportive male boss.

Asked the same question today and I’d answer it differently. I’d cover low self-confidence, my tendency to play down my achievements and to agonise over how well I was reconciling a full-on career with family responsibilities. I’d also call out the macho culture that prevailed in media and how disconnected I felt from it.

I would talk about the influence that the male boss had in a very different way. Today, I’d describe him as my sponsor who advocated for me and helped me to overcome resistance to the promotion of a woman to a senior role.

What I realise now is how much of what I was experiencing in my early career, and which I kept to myself, was no different to other women. More importantly, I now know what I could have done to improve my coping skills and my ability to overcome some of the barriers women face in advancing their careers.

Little has changed

Through my involvement with WoW, a voluntary female leadership initiative, I’ve explored these themes in depth. It has led me to realise how little has changed in the last number of decades and how, despite the noise about gender diversity, that women continue to face infinitely more workplace challenges than men.

Corporate culture is in a time warp and was designed for our fathers and grandfathers. It doesn’t take account of major demographic changes such as more women at work and more parents trying to juggle family and work responsibilities. Unconscious bias – quick judgments and assessments of people and situations based on our backgrounds or our personal experiences – prevails and negatively impacts on women’s promotional prospects.

The transition from education to the workplace can be difficult for women. While outperforming men academically, women enter the workforce as equals but within a few years they begin to fall behind their male counterparts.

Confidence and an ability to promote yourself

In the workplace, women find that the diligence and competence do not always produce the payback they did in college. Confidence and an ability to promote yourself are attributes that are valued – and are among the many reasons why men move up the corporate ladder more quickly than women.

The academic research is compelling. It shows that in comparison with men, women lack
confidence, continuously underestimate their abilities and are loath to own their own achievements.

“There are still days I wake up feeling like a fraud,” Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook COO admits, in a textbook example of what’s called Imposter Syndrome.

So what can women do to overcome confidence and indeed other barriers they face in the workplace? Here are some of the tips recommended in #WomanUp, an action plan on female leadership which WoW has published based on extensive research process and the learnings from WoW’s development programme, designed to build confidence and leadership skills among aspiring female leaders.

Firstly, it’s important to recognise that a lack of confidence is often a default setting. Taking a simple confidence test like this one can help to give you a baseline. Getting support and even coping mechanisms from trusted colleagues and friends helps.

Confidence Code

Of particular value, though, are more formal relationships with mentors (whose role is to provide a safe space and give unbiased support) and sponsors (usually more senior executives who put you forward for opportunities).

Improving confidence is hard work. According to the authors of Confidence Code, a highly accessible book that we consider a “must read”, you can improve your confidence but it does require taking risks, determined persistence, and sometimes bitter failure.

“Nothing builds confidence like taking action, especially when the action involves risk and failure,” the book recommends.

Women don’t need to behave like men to succeed in the corporate world. Instead, they should play to their considerable strengths and “flex” but not compromise on their natural styles by:

  • Building a higher profile for themselves within the work environment
  • Seizing new opportunities and particularly getting critical P&L or budget responsibilities
  • Not being shy when it comes to pay negotiations

One of the many reasons why gender pay gaps prevail is that women tend not to negotiate as well for themselves as men. But you learn how to plan and handle your own pay negotiations – and not under-estimate the value you bring to your employer.

When it comes to reconciling work and family responsibilities, our advice is to work out what’s important to you – family, career, sport, health and well-being – and strive to achieve the optimum mix that works. If the “always-on” frenetic culture of some organisations works for you, then go for it. If it isn’t, then select what does, set boundaries around your working life and stick to them.

Aileen O’Toole is one of the founders of WoW, a voluntary female leadership initiative, which has published #WomanUp, an action plan on female leadership. The plan can be downloaded here.

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56 Comments
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    Mute Sean Minihane
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    Sep 28th 2021, 7:47 PM

    Fair play to the Irish government. They have done a great job steering the ship.

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    Mute Paul Hedderman
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    Sep 28th 2021, 9:08 PM

    @Sean Minihane: Only since July 2021

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    Mute Tony Gordon
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    Sep 28th 2021, 9:49 PM

    @Paul Hedderman: yup, all the planing just magically appeared in July.

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    Mute Paul Hedderman
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    Sep 28th 2021, 10:43 PM

    @Tony Gordon: Vaccine rollout aside did they really do a good job “steering the ship” in your opinion?

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    Mute Ger
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    Sep 29th 2021, 2:14 AM

    @Paul Hedderman: yes they did, in my opinion. Their 2 biggest missteps was not planning sufficiently for nursing homes at the very beginning, which in fairness every country got wrong. And then reopening in December at the beginning of the Delta outbreak. Aside from that we have done very well, far better than most of Europe.

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    Mute Paul Hedderman
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    Sep 29th 2021, 10:58 AM

    @Ger: Delaying locking down for the first lockdown when other European States were locking down around us and covid confirmed a few weeks prior. No engagement with highly effected sectors. Lack of communication to public, conflicting information, leaks. Conflicting rules. Not allowing businesses to open sooner when they could operate safely. Only telling us socialising outdoors was safe just before the summer when it suited their agenda. Not preparing schools properly. Not implementing mass rapid testing, to name but a few…….. Re christmas (UK variant) they had to ease restrictions, public would have gone mad and ignored them if they didnt, that wave was inevitable as it started weeks before easing, with new variant, Christmas and 2 months of level 5 prior it was the perfect storm.

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    Mute Raysdaisy
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    Sep 29th 2021, 11:11 AM

    @Sean Minihane: RTE will be disgusted. They are still trying to stir it.

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    Mute Paul Whitehead
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    Sep 28th 2021, 7:51 PM

    It has been a remarkable achievement. Let’s hope it continues.

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    Mute Niels
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    Sep 28th 2021, 7:51 PM

    All the overly dramatic commenters posting ‘open the pubs’ on here every day for the past 18months should have a look at that Bloomberg article and see how much more restrictive the lockdowns were in other European countries.

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    Mute Ronan Walsh
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    Sep 28th 2021, 8:01 PM

    @Niels: Exactly, imagine your priority in the middle of a pandemic being whether the pubs are open or not , a horribly negative benchmark to use.

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    Mute Paul Hedderman
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    Sep 28th 2021, 8:30 PM

    @Niels: only 5 European countries on the list higher than us for restrictions, 6 if you include Turkey…… We’re only in the top 10 in that chart of only 53 countries since mid summer. Article is titled “The Best and Worst Places to Be as We Learn to Live With Delta”…. Not “countries have performed the best through the whole pandemic”…. Vaccine rollout was a great success. Handling of the first year and a bit of it was shocking by govt, particularly the start… I’d take that report with a pinch of salt. Our universal healthcare score is 90 somehow and I wonder how much weight GDP growth forecast goes towards the rank. Hard to see how were better than Denmark when they have more vaxd, better healthcare, less restrictions, nearly half the cases and deaths compared to us since delta.

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    Mute John Black
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    Sep 28th 2021, 8:47 PM

    @Paul Hedderman: they also don’t share a border with the UK who have been a disaster throughout the pandemic, that’s a massive point going in their favour

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    Mute Joe_X
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    Sep 28th 2021, 9:11 PM

    @Paul Hedderman: I don’t understand how we managed to knock Norway off the top spot to tell the truth, As John just pointed out to you, we share a land border with the UK, but Norway shares with Sweden and when you compare those two, the difference is purely due to the difference in the paths taken by the authorities of both countries.

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    Mute Joe_X
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    Sep 28th 2021, 9:20 PM

    @Paul Hedderman: Sorry, hit wrong key. Anyway, that said, I’ve no issue with our government’ response, and as to various comments of only since the mid summer, it is a report that is done monthly, so depending on how it goes, we may be further down the list again next month.

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    Mute camio55
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    Sep 28th 2021, 8:06 PM

    Great government leadership and commitment from all in the health service. Very proud of our efforts.

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    Mute murt de murty
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    Sep 28th 2021, 7:35 PM

    I’m happy with it- come at me.

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    Mute Ger Cassidy
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    Sep 28th 2021, 7:40 PM

    @murt de murty: wont be long now ;)

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    Mute John A. Dixon
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    Sep 28th 2021, 8:28 PM

    While not perfect, it certainly could have been better.
    But credit where it due, we did a decent job….and still are.

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    Mute Dan Duggan
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    Sep 28th 2021, 8:35 PM

    And v little congrats to The minister for health. How the shinners piled on to him

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    Mute Hugh Morris
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    Sep 28th 2021, 7:49 PM

    And the public never doubted the government for a second

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    Mute Tony Gordon
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    Sep 28th 2021, 9:52 PM

    Proud of the majority of Irish people not succumbing to the nonsense and believing is good science.

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    Mute Nick Caffrey
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    Sep 28th 2021, 11:43 PM

    @Tony Gordon: Indeed! Long may it last!

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    Mute Wolfgang Hanratty
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    Sep 28th 2021, 8:05 PM

    Open the pubs properly!

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    Mute Diarmuid Hunt
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    Sep 28th 2021, 8:25 PM

    @Wolfgang Hanratty: Try harder

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    Mute Joe_X
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    Sep 28th 2021, 9:21 PM

    @Wolfgang Hanratty: did you get a thrill saying that?

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    Mute Anarch Eco
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    Sep 28th 2021, 9:30 PM

    @Joe_X: open the pubs and reverse the smoking ban.

    And free plastic bags while you re at it.

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    Mute Joe_X
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    Sep 28th 2021, 10:38 PM

    @Anarch Eco: A right rebel, you are!

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    Mute Eamonn Keating
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    Sep 28th 2021, 7:59 PM

    Enda was right. We’re the best little country in the world to get Covid in.

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    Mute Jonathan
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    Sep 28th 2021, 9:07 PM

    We won

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    Mute Cowboy Ted
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    Sep 28th 2021, 9:28 PM

    @Jonathan:
    We are winning, unfortunately this is not beat yet…
    Let’s just hope Tony got this right and opening will be handled…
    Still 1 in 5 from 18 to 49 are not vaccinated… we can do better there, that would massively reduce the risk of another lockdown…

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    Mute Tom Halpin
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    Sep 29th 2021, 6:35 AM

    Feck the begrudgers is my favourite old Dublin saying It could have been invented for the comments section of the Journal.ie.

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    Mute Munster1
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    Sep 28th 2021, 10:28 PM

    Pity it took a year to implement hotel quarantine

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    Mute Paul Cunningham
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    Sep 28th 2021, 9:58 PM

    It could have been so much better, especially with fumble after fumble in 2020 and the worst implementation of quarantine ever. We made it across the line eventually though with an excellent vaccination rate. Government can’t take credit for that.

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    Mute Sean
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    Sep 28th 2021, 10:19 PM

    @Paul Cunningham: The vaccines fell out of the sky then did they?

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    Mute Joe_X
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    Sep 28th 2021, 10:47 PM

    @Paul Cunningham: But they learned as they went from the mistakes, which is the important thing. Remember, for most people, this is a once in a lifetime event. Very few who lived through the Spanish flu pandemic of just over a hundred years ago are alive today. It’s not as if any government knew what to do when it kicked off, and the next time something like it occurs, hopefully, not at least for another hundred years or more, mistakes will be made again for the exact same reason.

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    Mute Michael Flanagan
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    Sep 29th 2021, 5:01 AM

    ‘The next two weeks are vital’ – still it implies an intelligent educated population in this country

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    Mute Csilla
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    Sep 28th 2021, 10:44 PM

    Remembering when New Zealand’s Ms Ardern said last year: ‘I was just looking at Ireland, their stepping down is taking them through to July before some people are back in work.”

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    Mute Mick Dunne
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    Sep 29th 2021, 10:17 AM

    I disagree when they say that Ireland was the worst in the world at the start of the year.India was actually the worst in the world.

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    Mute Ger O'Reilly
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    Sep 29th 2021, 1:12 PM

    Looks great when you apply the Trump formula for bringing down the numbers. Stop doing tests and the positivity numbers drop. Or someone has an underlying health condition and dies with Covid then they didn’t die of Covid according to Leo the leak. Don’t report the daily deaths and Looks like we’re heading in the right direction.

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    Mute Em Gee
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    Sep 29th 2021, 4:27 PM

    Bualadh bos! Aren’t we great! All we had to do was throw away everything our ancestors fought for! They’re spinning in their graves now but shur we can hook them up to the grid to make up for the shortfall in power caused by closing Irish power stations and giving away our electricity to data centres. We’re a great little country!

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