A Risk Every Woman Must Take
By Natalia Sardas - natsa594@student.liu.se
To be taken seriously when speaking as a female is not an easy task. All women experience discrimination at some point in their lives simply because they were born female. Unfortunately, this type of discrimination is common in the workplace. According to the essay Speaking while Female by Sheryl Sandberg and Adam Grant, women are often interrupted when they take the floor when expressing their opinions in what could be a work meeting. Consequently, women often decide that saying less is more. But does someone get the message if we remain silent? Probably the message being given instead is that we agree to stay out of the discussion, which is not the case. Nevertheless,
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It is a risk every woman must take to emphasize the importance of challenging patriarchal power structures, social norms, and gender stereotypes. The authors of the essay Speaking while Female quote Professor Brescoll, who concluded that powerful women stayed quiet because they feared a backlash. Brescoll contradicts himself. Conversely, an empowered woman would never accept the fact that she was being discriminated against for fear of what others would say. However, what makes a woman empowered is asserting her rights, despite the consequences.
I agree that businesses need to find ways to interrupt this gender bias by adopting practices that focus less on the speaker and more on the idea, a point that needs emphasizing in order to evaluate all proposals and opinions equally, avoiding distinctions of gender. A clever idea suggested by the authors could be to submit suggestions and solutions to problems anonymously. Experts evaluate the proposals, give feedback to all participants, and then implement the best plans. I heartily agree with this idea. It could be an engaging way to equally evaluate every