Navigating Against Gender Stereotypes in the Business World

Many stereotypes exist in the world today, which garners limitations to many individuals. In the same way, the business world is not immune to experiencing such limitations. In various professions such as business, gender inequality still exists. A challenge of this disparity is that it prevents inclusiveness and damages the diversity of work environments. It’s important that both businesses and individuals evaluate the ways in which this affects the workplace and collaboration in their environments.

Gender stereotypes are the generalized views on attributes or characteristics possessed by a specific gender (Gender Stereotyping). These forms of generalizations create inequalities and disproportionately negatively impact certain groups such as minorities, disabilities, and women. Most importantly gender stereotypes can limit opportunities for women in the business world. The practice of gender bias has led to missed practices in performance evaluation, project assignments, and leadership development, etc. 

Across various sectors of business a significant gap can be seen between senior management, with 35.5% of women being managers and 36.8% holding director positions (Global Gender Gap Report). Society is full of many gendered roles, and such roles, with the gender disparity in the workplace can limit the choices of many young children. Research also shows that 6% of girls interviewed aspired to have a career in science, technology, engineering and mathematics compared to 22% of boys (Child Career Choice). This form of underrepresentation should be challenged, and instead young girls should be encouraged to have more career opportunities and success. 

An effective strategy to challenge gender stereotypes is to build self-awareness and confidence. If young girls are encouraged to build a strong identity then being challenged with negativity would not have much effect. Young girls can focus on building and acquiring confidence through their different strengths and skills. Pursuing knowledge and continuous learning is another form of defying stereotypes with incompetency's. 

Another form of empowering young girls through mentorship. Having a mentor can provide guidance, shared experiences and offers invaluable insights to navigating the business world. In addition, through mentors you build your own support network. Becoming part of supportive networks allows you to be provided with the resources to be connected to other communities and work together to tackle gender stereotypes. 

Gender stereotypes can be seen as another limitation but it's not something that affects just one individual, it affects all women. It's important to build awareness and advocacy so that industries like business can become more inclusive and provide young girls with the ability to pursue their careers without confinement.