Is Work The Real Cause Of Your Distress?
Women in the corporate world face many challenges that most men will not. This is because women in business, although is changing, are still very much underrepresented in companies. The reason is complex in that, in traditional roles women have been the primary caretakers and so, haven’t yet built a legacy of businesses and despite nearly half the workforce in most companies the leaders are predominantly men. And so, many women feel they are on the back foot to start off with, and given that the precedent of business is to aggressively make money, traditionally not much acknowledgment was has been given to the unique skills that women contribute.
I did a survey asking women what were their biggest challenges they faced when they decided they wanted to start a family and I was not surprised by the their answers just deeply saddened to see that it hadn’t change enough for women in the corporate world.
What seem to be evident was that many of these women were trying to navigate the field of constant comparatives So for example:
- Mothers are feeling caught between the need or want to return back to work after having had their baby and who were wracked with guilt because they were wanting something for themselves BUT they also want to be the best mother they can be for their child and because those two worlds seem so diametrically opposed they struggled find yet a way to unite them and this was causing them to feel stressed, anxiety, fearful, worried, fatigued, etc.
- A comparative shift in identity from “who I am” as a corporate woman to “who am I” as a mother and being caught between who they “must be” in order to do their job rather than “being themselves”
- The corporate paradigm is counterintuitive to self-care and nourishing. A world that is based on competition, lack of safety, motivated in a push or thrust paradigm all highly indicated to foster Imposter Syndrome and as such can seriously hurt women especially, when they are not supported into fully being themselves. And so the conflict is the desire to take care of themselves by managing their time differently, having more breaks, eating better, etc versus be seen to be a valuable contributor in their workplace.
To name a some of the tangible fears that many women have voiced are:
- Uncertainty about “leaving their job”. They often have worked hard to be where they are and now they have to make new adjustments to include motherhood. And so, they worry about returning back into the workplace. They will probably have had a year out in maternity leave and so, thoughts like, “will be behind others and have to catch up, do I have to prove myself all over again, will I be
side-lined because other have less commitments and therefore can fulfil my role better?” - For those women that have decide to delay having a family because they wanted establish themselves and have a greater financial net results in them starting later to get pregnant, put them in the immediate situation to experience infertility problems.
- Fear of how all this stress is affecting theirs and their baby’s health and well- being.
To resolve this there needs to be a fundamental key shifts in the corporate beliefs and values to a structured that incorporates the prospective of both women and corporate bodies towards seeing a much higher vision.
From, the perspective for women: To fully embody the a powerful vision, one where having a child is a powerful purpose in its own right and to have the deeper awareness that they can have multiple purposes at the same time.
They are not mutually exclusive
And from the corporate perspective: To truly understand what corporate means – the embodiment of all its members so that they can create. How do they do that is by embodying a bigger and more expansive vision that extends to how future generations will carry on its legacy.
Because the truth is
Isn’t it people alone that create and use the currency of money, certainly machines or animals can’t use it or need it? So let’s create the future for mums and children by supporting the mothers and mothers to be. Only then can we have real parity and mutual respect.
If you are struggling and something here has resonated for and you would like to have a conversation please book in for a chat with me.
