Women Share How They “Ignore Gender” to Achieve Success

by Anna Collins, Esq. (Portland, Maine)

Just as success means different things to different people, obtaining success for women involves diverse choices and paths. According to a recent Huffington Post article, while some women believe it is necessary to navigate through the gender dynamics in business by focusing on gender when necessary, others actually ignore gender as a blatant strategy for success. In order to understand the trend of “ignoring gender” as a means to achieve success, we spoke to several women about their own paths to success. Of course, “ignoring gender” means different things to different people.

For Marlene Mitchell Gordon, Vice President and Assistant General Counsel for Burger King Corporation , “ignoring gender” means treating each person as a human being rather than male or female. She recalls how one male colleague seemed uncomfortable with her. When she realized that he had never before worked with a woman of color, she proceeded to ignore gender and race by working to build a relationship with him focused on getting to know him as a person and allowing him to get to know her. By taking initiative to learn about his background and experiences and sharing her background and experiences with him, they found that they shared common experiences. This led to them forging a strong business relationship based on mutual respect and trust. As a result, Ms. Gordon found that her gender and race were quickly non-issues.

Gabriela Cora, who was once hired as a Fortune 500’s first female consultant by an all-male management team because they felt “I was one of them,” similarly says the trick to her success has been focusing on her client’s challenges rather than her gender or ethnicity. “When you show that you understand your client’s problem and the pain it gives them,” she explains “and when they realize you care and you can bring effective solutions to what keeps them awake at night, you will be hired regardless of gender, race, ethnicity or anything else.”

Dian Griesel, founder and Chief Executive Officer of The Investor Relations Group, Inc., agrees that focusing on people’s humanity is the best way to succeed. She explains that she has always recognized that people have their own agendas with regard to gender, but “that agenda does not have to be mine.”

Michele Ashby, CEO of MiNE LLC, agrees. She recalls how she succeeded as a stock broker early on in her career. “We were measured by our numbers, not our gender,” she shares “so that is what I focused on.” She acknowledges that she ran into sexism, but she did not let it stop her from pursuing advancement in male-dominated fields. “I decided to specialize in gold stocks very early in my career, and that put me into yet another male dominated industry,” she recalls “I went to conferences where I was the only woman out of 600 men. My mentors were men and I just approached things in a pragmatic way. I wanted to make my mark, just like they did.”

Shannah Compton, MBA of SLC Insurance Services, Inc., has developed a similar strategy to ignoring gender in a segment of finances services business that is dominate by men. “Ignoring gender,” she explains “means walking into a room filled with business owners or high net worth male clients and being able to take control of the room as an equal.” Compton uses her firm handshake and makes small talk about topics of interest to her colleagues or clients. “Many women believe that I am sacrificing who I am,” she shares “however, I have always known that to have real success in my industry you need to ‘play with the big boys’. Once you are seen as an equal the gender lines no longer apply and you are simply the expert.”

Kathryn Kerrigan of Kathryn Kerrigan Shoes describes this approach as being “a businessperson, not a woman or a man.” Even when it comes to negotiating, Kerrigan shares she has had to consciously remove gender out of the picture. “I have altered my ego and personality to accomplish business goals, negotiate deals with overseas suppliers and ultimately be successful,” she explains “I’m a business-person first, then a woman.”

Yet, not all women agree that ignoring gender means shifting the presentation of one’s own gender. Jane Myers, who has practiced law for 29 years, says she has always ignored gender, “even in the courtroom when trial judges would ask me where my lawyer was while pretending to assume I was the client and not the attorney.” However, Myers believes that men and women do the “negotiation dance” very differently. “If you aren’t aware of those differences,” she continues “you may be selling your client short at the negotiation table. Ultimately, Myers believes that the key for women in business is to be genuine. “People gravitate toward that immediately,” she concludes.

Focusing on authenticity is also important to Laura Lopez, a former Vice President at The Coca-Cola Company. She believes that when women buy into gender being an issue in business, they want to behave “like men.” “This is a mistake,” Lopez insists “because it limits our results and our impact. When I was able to ignore gender, it is when I was more effective.”

Lopez continues that successful leaders are those who comfortable in their own skin, regardless of their gender. In her book, “The Connected and Committed Leader”, she writes about how she once asked a boss, “What should I start doing to be more effective?” His response was, “Start being the same person at work as you are at home.” “I didn’t understand it at the time,” she writes “but what he was telling me was, ‘Be yourself. Be all of you.’”

Lopez found it easiest to be herself at work after becoming a parent, when she realized that success was not about being devoid of feminine traits, but about bringing her heart to work. For Lopez, ignoring gender is thus more about not focusing on whether you are being too feminine or not “manly” enough. “Gender should never be an issue,” she concludes “and once you think it is, it will be and it will limit your success.”

While women have a different approach to ignoring gender, most agree that the quality of their work must come first for success. Tracy L. Coenen, a forensic accountant and founder of Sequence Inc. , works in a specialty in which there are few females at high levels and most of her clients are older males. “I make it my business to be a good and effective expert witness or fraud investigator regardless of my gender,” she shares “and I’ve gained respect because of that. Simply put, I let my work speak for itself.” This focus on results appears to be the unifying characteristic for successful women, regardless of how they ignore gender.