Women who work in male dominated careers, how do you find your place and make your voice heard?

4 comments

1. firm, memorable handshake. no use of intensifiers or exclamations in written or spoken speech. interrupt anyone who regularly interrupts me. maintain eye contact in person. no sharing of personal life details. punctuality & meeting deadlines are a must for me. demonstrate to my organization that my direct reports respect me & always meet metrics.

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   eta: maintain my intellectual property as my own & not leave it after i am gone unless previously agreed-upon. in turn, bringing intellectual property i have created previously to new workplaces & implementing it to streamline workflow

2. Unfortunately, in my case it required male colleagues who were aware of the biases and advocated for me.

   I did everything “right” – was professional, punctual, and diligent in my work. However, none of that was recognized until I switched departments and my new manager made a point of circling back to me when I got interrupted. I eventually got comfortable enough with him to bring my ideas directly to him and he would make sure to give me credit.

   I thanked him when I left the company for a female-led company instead. He’s a really great guy, but some places are impossible to change.

   edit:

   For my part, I made sure I was included into all the “boys club” activities. I participated in fantasy football (even though I had no idea what I was doing and had to have my BIL help me), went to after work drinks, did the Superbowl squares.

3. I became the boss. I set the cultural expectations, and make sure we have an environment where everyone is heard and feels like they belong. And I don’t let any amount of misogyny or disrespect slide.

4. When I feel disrespected, I clearly state, that I am in charge.
   Sometimes, in a round of men, the attention shifts from me to a male coworker, who has no right to decide the things we are talking about.

   So I would say things like “as the lab manager of this department, I’d like to do my best, so please explain xyz again” or “since I am security officer in this department, I need these documents, so please send them to me later”.

   It took a while because I was only 20 or 21 years old when I started on this position and with time I took on more and more responsibilities. Now, I feel like the other employees respect me the same as male coworkers, they know what I am in charge of and will contact and talk to me directly. So glad I was able to get to this comfortable position