Personal Empowerment for Women and Mixed Groups

Gender stereotyping

UNESCO defines the key dimensions of sustainable human development as: empowerment, cooperation, equity, sustainability and security. Since women constitute more than half the world’s population, a key element of this vision is that of gender equality.

These objectives require the development of women’s leadership capacities but in many spheres of life, women are found in subordinate roles. Even in education, health care and other service industries where they make up the majority of the work force, there are few women in key management posts.

Programming career development has always been difficult for women as the important years are also those of childbearing and family responsibilities. Women often experience barriers: family attitudes, a male-dominated culture, resistance to women in management positions, and inadequate legislation to protect our rights and participation.

One of the results of gender stereotyping is that women may not be encouraged to plan or think about their lives independent of others. This can make it more difficult to undertake the long-term planning that career progression requires. A common mistake that women make is to think that doing things well is enough to get them noticed and appreciated. It isn’t! Men have learned that doing the right thing to get you noticed by the right people is what tends to attract rewards. Meanwhile, women busy themselves doing what needs to be done and are reluctant to draw other people’s attention to their positive attributes. They may take on tasks that could be delegated. As a result, women often get taken for granted, exploited, and passed over for promotion.

Career barriers for women

The Career Track/Dellinger Survey on women’s status across 22 industries has identified the following career barriers for women:

Lack of self-confidence Lack of education Fear of failure Non-assertiveness Conflicts balancing work and home Weak persuasive skills Financial problems Concern for others Limited flexibility: especially location and work schedule

The most significant problem faced by women in the highest income category was “to be taken more seriously” and they identified their major barrier to career success as “lack of self-confidence”. High achievers took personal responsibility for their lives, citing “internal barriers”, such as lack of assertiveness and fear of failure, for holding them back. The good news is that these are issues that women can address for themselves.

Regardless of the culture, in many families it’s assumed that the husband’s career is the most important and that even if the wife works, her real vocation is that of caring for others. This is why so many women find themselves in difficulty if the marriage breaks down or the husband finds himself unable to support the family. Instead of feeling proud of their contribution, women who have dedicated themselves to others often have low self-esteem, describing themselves as “just a housewife”. They don’t realize the many valuable, and potentially transferable, skills they have gained through a lifetime of managing home and family. Nowadays, many women work at some stage, whether on a part-time or full-time basis. This may be an economic necessity, but working can also be a source of growth and fulfillment.

Empowering women in the Arab states

In the Arab states, women are under-represented in leadership roles and there is an urgent need to modernize systems and structures to help shape new models of society. Achieving these major changes requires action at the highest levels of policy-making and is a long-term project but there’s another dimension to implementing change. Women can improve their own situation by taking positive action. Each of us can benefit from adopting strategies at the individual level that will enable us to fulfill our potential; changing society also means changing hearts and minds!

A vision of success

Research shows that people who plan tend to achieve over 95% of their goals. Having a vision of success that includes specific goals for one’s individual development is a vital element in building confidence for everyone, and women are no exception. For women this also provides an important role model for children whose ideas about the value of women will be greatly influenced by what they experienced during their formative years. Children won’t base their opinion of women on what they were told but on what they actually observed - it’s not what we say but what we do that counts!

Start to build a personal development plan

Focus, vision and action are the key ingredients of any personal development plan. You may have aspects of this in place already, but other areas may be vague or missing altogether. A good starting point for taking control of your life is to ask and answer the following questions:

• What are the most important things in your life, other than your family? How much time and resources do you dedicate to these?
• When was the last time you participated in a course of personal or professional development? How have you used what you learned – and what follow-up have you planned?
• Is there something that you’ve always wanted to do but never done? A challenge that you’ve yet to take on? If so, devise a plan – with dates, budget, and specific actions you need to take to achieve this. If not, think of something!
• Do you have a ‘treasure map’ identifying all the goals – small and large - you intend to achieve in your life? If not, why not? Make a start now!
• How aware are you of your financial status? We all need well-defined plans for ‘best/worst case’ scenarios to ensure our financial survival.

Assertiveness and communication skills

Assertive behaviour is not the same as aggression. Being assertive means being confident enough to practise the art of direct, honest and clear communication whilst respecting the rights and needs of others.  Our courses teach this art, enabling you to:

Lack of self-confidence Lack of education increase your self-esteem make your own decisions stand your ground say ‘no’ ask for what you want deal with giving and receiving criticism….and compliments! handle put-downs manage your own and other people’s anger make complaints express your feelings negotiate effectively speak in public

Our courses help women – and men - develop their confidence, self-esteem and assertiveness skills. These practical interactive courses inspire participants to raise their self-esteem, make powerful choices about values and lifestyle, and start creating and implementing a personal vision of success.

These courses are led by Dr Leila Edwards, a highly qualified and experienced life coach and trainer with many years experience of leading groups, both mixed and women-only. She will teach you the verbal and body language of assertiveness and communication skills through practical techniques, role play and case studies in a supportive and enjoyable environment.

We regularly offer evening classes and weekend intensives. The next 6-week evening course in ‘Personal Empowerment for Women’, is running in Bahrain in January – February 2007, starting on Monday 15th January, from 6.30 - 9.30 pm. Click here to download a leaflet for this and similar courses. Contact us for dates, venues and details of future public courses or to commission in-house training for your staff.

Contact us now to discuss your needs  

info@themakoverexperience.com

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