Navigating the Maze
A few months ago, I wrote a post on LinkedIn that generated a lot of interest. The post touched upon recent news headlines that highlighted several influential women in leadership roles stepping down to prioritise personal well-being, family, and life outside work: YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, Meta's Chief Business Officer Marne Levine, and New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern have all announced their departures in the past few months. This attrition not only impacts diversity in the C-suite but also deprives junior women of valuable role models.
It evidently struck a chord with many, highlighting a shared experience and underscoring the reality that systemic barriers remain firmly in place, maintaining the status quo.
As an HR professional who migrated to Australia 2 decades ago, a working mother, and with English as my second language, I've lost count of the number of barriers I've had to break through to get to where I am today.
The response to my post has inspired me to continue writing about the barriers that professionals, especially women, face in the workplace. These barriers encompass not only reaching influential positions but also maintaining them.
🚧 The journey is like navigating through a maze - it's a complex puzzle with multiple layers of barriers and potentially explains why we're not seeing a proportional rise in women leading organisations and boards, despite the efforts to support the advancement of women and marginalised communities.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, women constituted 62.5% of the labour force in 2023. However only 22.3% of CEOs are women and only 20% of boards have achieved gender balance, as per the Workplace Gender Equality Agency.
If you're a working woman, chances are you've encountered a few roadblocks on your career journey. I can think of many examples; from being assigned less significant projects upon my return from maternity leave after requesting part-time work, to feeling conflicted by wanting to have a meaningful career and raising happy and healthy kids at the same time, all while grappling with impostor syndrome!
I find it useful to differentiate between the barriers and focus on those I can control and break free from.
Let's have a look at the 3 layers of barriers:
🌍 On the cultural layer there are societal norms, cultural expectations, gender roles, and pay gaps, along with other well-researched obstacles such as the double bind and power paradox that continue to impede women's professional growth.
🏢The organisational layer presents its own set of hurdles. Women encounter a glass ceiling that restricts access to leadership roles. Conscious and unconscious bias in hiring and promotion practices and lack of supportive policies can make work-life balance a daily struggle, and if psychological safety is absent (on an organisational/department or team level) it becomes significantly harder for women to assert their voices, contribute fully, and tap into their full potential.
🔍 The often overlooked layer is the personal, inner barriers, the inner glass ceiling. Ever felt self-doubt creep in when considering a promotion? Or held yourself back because you thought you might not be qualified enough? These self-imposed limitations can often be women's worst enemy.
If you want to read more, download a copy of my whitepaper: Closing the Leadership Gap from the Inside, downland it here.
