I Refuse to Be Seen as a Minority Just Because I'm Female
Let me be perfectly clear: I am tired of being put into a box as a minority just because I'm female. I'm talking about my refusal to be seen as a minority regarding capabilities, intelligence, and worth.
Women have been told repeatedly that we need to "lean in" or "speak up" to be taken seriously in the workplace. We’ve been told that we must work twice as hard as our male counterparts to prove our worth.
And let me tell you, I am tired of it.
I’m tired of seeing report after report showing the benefits of diversity in leadership roles, boards etc., but not seeing the need to change the status accordingly.
Challenging the Inequality of Labeling Women
This age-old habit of labelling women as something less than the other gender is an age old tradition!
And as so many traditions hold us back as humanity, I see this tradition as peer pressure from dead people. We are holding tight onto traditions that originate from people that are long dead.
And since I’m 100% transparent and open here, I want to add that I’m also dead tired of people telling me that this can’t be changed.
Businesses Need Diverse Talents - Now! Not in 151 years!
Are you aware? We are going backwards!
Reading the latest news from World Economic Forum at Davos. When they announced that it would take 151 years until Global Gender Parity would be achieved, it just made me want to cry!
This growing gender gap continues to impact the global economy and business success for every organisation and women - present and future. In 2018 it was 68 years. In 2020 it was 99 years. In 2022 it was 132 years.
Today that gap has more than doubled to 151 since five years ago.
Leslie Grossman, executive leadership coach and faculty director of the Executive Women’s Leadership Programs at the George Washington University Center for Excellence in Public Leadership, points this out in her brilliant LinkedIn article on January 18th 2023.
McKinsey Predicts 10 Million Additional Labor with Diverse Skills Needed By 2030… in Europe alone!
McKinsey's wholesale and retail report for 2030 shows the challenges businesses face in times of digital revolution and the need for a sustainable business. Access to skills and talents is massively essential.
According to McKinsey modelling, companies across all retail and wholesale subsectors will need to invest an additional 0.8 to 1.6 per cent of their revenue till 2030 on average for skills and talents. Retailers and wholesalers need to train additional ten million people in the sector annually until 2030. The further investment totalling €25 billion (a conservative scenario) or €35 billion (an ambitious scenario) will enable the other two transformations.
From a global perspective, European retailers and wholesalers invest less than players in other regions, so there are even higher stakes in other parts of the world.
Stepping Up in a Changing World: Crucial New Job Opportunities
And if we keep seeing all women as a minority group. How will that help women be seen as equal in the workplace? Are they just as likely to lead the transformation in the retail and wholesale business alone? (not to mention other business fields)? Or is it more likely to see them in lower-paid roles?
Much more likely to offer them a lower-paid job…after all, they are seen as a minority! - remember!?
I’m also afraid that this ‘minority’ BS has programmed way too many women to accept being in the minority box; they will be less likely to think they can fulfil these job roles.
After all, if you’ve been told for generations that you are not good enough, you believe you are not good enough!
Break Free of Minority Mentality: Unlock New Energy Frequencies
As everything is energy, and energy has different frequencies, I want to be in the frequency of freedom! Not in the energy of being a minority. I’m talking about the freedom to be me so I can be respected and valued and have a voice.
I firmly decline the social construct of being put into a frequency that sets me at a lower bar than another human being just because of my gender.
You Don't Have to Settle for Being a Minority
I refuse to let anyone make me feel like a minority in any aspect of my life, and so should you!
Let's not forget the consequences of putting half of humanity into a gender box that isn't empowering us; it saves us a few brain calories.
So to all the women who are tired of being seen as a minority and to all the men who are sick and tired of this conversation, I say this: don't accept it. Put more focus on giving yourself space to break free from the socially constructed gender box holding you back from being yourself.
It's time to break free from the traditional gender roles imposed on us for so long, and it's time to be seen as equal finally.
You deserve to be yourself! You deserve it, we deserve it, and it's long overdue.
