Using Our Experience, Skills, and Power
 to Advocate for Social Issues That Matter

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Tania HaighIn honor of Women’s History Month, it is important to take the time to understand just how much women have contributed to modern society. Of course, it’s easy for most people to identify those “superhero” women who juggle childcare, home duties, education, and work. In reality, though, many of these women also contribute to making the world a better place by pursuing their dreams, careers, and personal aspirations.

To achieve their goals, women have also fought to shatter the glass ceiling by finding corporate success as leaders of Fortune 500 companies. For example, Susan Wojcicki took the helm of YouTube in 2014; but long before her rise as the video-sharing platform’s CEO, she was already an entrepreneur paving her way as one of today’s highest-performing female CEOs. Similarly, in 2012, Ginni Rometty was announced as president and CEO of IBM, becoming the company’s first female chief in its 108-year history.

For certain women leaders, however, achieving professional success and recognition is simply not enough. That’s why many of them find ways to use their corporate influence to impact change—and some even transition away from the corporate world altogether and, instead, use the skills they’ve gained to start social impact programs that truly make a difference in the lives of others.

Take Melissa Lightfoot Levick, for example. Lightfoot Levick is the executive director of ONEHOPE Foundation. Through the contacts and experience she gained in her prior leadership roles in tech businesses, she now uses her knowledge and skills to connect nonprofit organizations with commercial companies, which then enables customers to support brands with charitable affiliations.

It’s no surprise, either, that we see women leaders dedicated to improving children’s lives—such as by better protecting their online experiences, for example. The KIDS TOO Movement was recently launched to further this goal. KIDS TOO works collaboratively with other nonprofits to drive legislation that protects children from online predators, child sexual abuse material, and sex trafficking. The organization also provides parents with helpful information about how to spot warning signs and how to educate their children about the appropriate use of digital devices and platforms.

For all women in the workplace, no matter what their community passions are, there are all sorts of ways for them to use their experience and skills to advocate for all the social issues that matter most to them. For example, women can:

  • Spread Awareness. Women play a key role in bringing attention to important issues and elevating these issues to national awareness. They can speak at national events and conferences to address social issues that are important to them. They can use their influence in the workplace to create social impact programs. They can serve on boards of nonprofit organizations to assist with their executive leadership needs.
  • Step Up and Volunteer. Many nonprofits rely on volunteer assistance, and women with relevant knowledge and expertise often step up to the plate. Organizations that advocate for social change, in particular, often rely on these women to roll up their sleeves and get the work done. While any woman can contribute in meaningful ways, those with specialized skills, such as attorneys and tech specialists, can add significant value to any social program that needs their expertise, driving even more impact.
  • Help Drive Funding. Many women now serve in the C-suite for leading brands. Since most corporations set aside funding to contribute to community causes, women in executive leadership can often use their influence to allocate funding to causes that matter the most to them. Social-impact organizations typically need funding in order to advance their mission; thus, when women drive funding to nonprofit groups, they themselves are playing a vital role in ensuring the success of these organizations.

Throughout the ages, in spite of regular and ongoing obstacles and challenges, women have always played a pivotal role in tackling social issues. As such, their leadership, experience, skills, and power should continue to be leveraged in positive ways to address the many pressing needs identified throughout the world today. Now, during Women’s History Month, it is especially vital to remember and honor women’s collective power and to acknowledge how successful women have been—and will continue to be—at shaping our communities in healthy and positive ways.

By Tania Haigh, founder of the KIDS TOO Movement and co-founder of Parents Against Child Sex Abuse (P.A.X.A.)

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Will Companies Value the Leaders Who Invest In Inclusion?

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DEI leadersWhile women report being both increasingly burned out from the pandemic years and vulnerable to leave the workforce, they are also most likely to be rising up to embody the leadership our times ask for.

Will companies begin to put their money (financial and career trajectory rewards) where their mouths are? If not, allowing women to disproportionally shoulder the “unpaid work” of empathetic management and DEI is a strategy for losing the leaders who are tapped in and more valuable than ever.

Our Times Call for Compassionate Leadership

Amidst the pandemic, leadership has become more oriented towards supporting individuals as a whole person, not just as employees, with qualities such as emotional intelligence and active listening. As written in Forbes: “One of the key lessons young people can take from today’s successful executives and leaders is the value of taking care of your people.”

According to Catalyst, employees who report their leaders are empathetic are far more likely to feel engaged, respected and valued, are more likely to stay in their place of work, be innovative and feel a sense of inclusion. When people sense their leaders are empathetic, they also feel more able to navigate the demands of work and family life.

People who see their leadership as empathetic in decision making are also likely to be collaborative and empathetic themselves. And when leaders are more empathetic, it fosters better levels of mental health in their organization. Using empathy as the catalyst for leading with more compassion (not ‘I feel with you’ but ‘I am here to help,’ as we are inherently interconnected) creates even more effective leadership.

As Tracy Bower, Ph.D. sociologist and the author of The Secrets to Happiness at Work, writes in Forbes, “Leaders don’t have to be experts in mental health in order to demonstrate they care and are paying attention. It’s enough to check in, ask questions and take cues from the employee about how much they want to share” – and this drives positive relationships, engagement and organizational results.

Women Are Leading The Deep Cultural Work

According to the Women in the Workplace 2021 Report – a collaboration between McKinsey & Company and LeanIn.org collected from over 423 organizations and 65,000 employee surveys – women are more likely to be carrying the torch of the “deep cultural work” necessary to transform workplaces “healthily and sustainably” in these times.

Women managers are consistently more likely to be supporting employees in their work lives (making the workload manageable, navigating work/life challenges, preventing and managing burnout). Women are also much more likely to be checking in on employee’s overall well-being and supporting them emotionally. In essence, employees are reporting that their female managers are showing up more with the active compassion of ‘how can I help?’

Also, women are more likely to be doing informal DEI work, beyond formal job responsibilities, and spending substantial time doing so. Compared to their male peers, senior female leaders are twice as likely to be making DEI work a part of their weekly work flow (1 in 5 vs 1 in 10). Women are also likely to recruit from and support underrepresented groups, be allies to women of color, to educate themselves, to speak out again discrimination, and to advocate for, mentor or sponsor women of color – although it’s important to note there are still big gaps to bridge in embodying the allies people would most value.

Ultimately, the work women are doing is driving better outcomes for everyone – because employees who feel their managers support their well-being, or who feel DEI is a priority and strong allies are present, are significantly happier, less burned out and more likely to stay around.

Women Are Stepping Up, And Burning Out

Yet while women managers and leaders are heeding the leadership call of our times, they are also undeniably overburdened themselves, with many not only carrying the double-shift of childcare and work, but also feeling the expectation to be “always on” in the absence of clear work/life boundaries in the remote and hybrid workplaces – another issue companies can help to address.

In 2021, 1 in 3 women were thinking about downshifting their careers or leaving the workforce, up from 1 in 4 women a few months into the pandemic in 2020. 4 in 10 women were looking to leave their company or switch jobs. 42% of women felt often or almost always burned out in 2021, a big jump up from 32% in 2020, and compared to 35% of men. That burnout feeling escalates with responsibility level. Among senior women who are managing entire teams, 50% were often or always burned out, and 40% were considering leaving the workforce or downshifting their careers.

Valued in Words, But Not In Actions

Companies are espousing that DEI and employee well-being are important to them. But while 87% of companies say that supporting employee well-being is critical and 70% say DEI work is critical, only about 25% are formally recognizing this work – and even fewer are rewarding it.

Despite stating gender and racial diversity as top priorities, only two-thirds of companies hold senior leaders accountable for progress on DEI goals, and less than one-third hold managers accountable, who are essential to creating cultures of inclusion. Among those who hold senior leaders accountable, fewer than half factor progress on diversity metrics into their performance reviews and less than a quarter build in financial incentives for progress on performance goals – meaning ultimately, the work is overlooked.

Right now, these highly sought leadership behaviors are adding up to be the new “unpaid work” highlighting where companies need to put more value. That women are disproportionally carrying this is a dangerous liability for employers during the Great Resignation. According to the report authors, “Companies risk losing the very leaders they need right now, and it’s hard to imagine organizations navigating the pandemic and building inclusive workplaces if this work isn’t truly prioritized.”

The authors urge organizations to treat DEI like any business priority, including following goals through to assessing effort and progress within performance reviews, and relating that to career advancement and compensation.

It’s Time to Recognize and Reward The Work

Right now, women are feeling burned out while taking personal leadership initiative on collective responsibilities. Companies are sabotaging progress on what they allege to be business priorities by not threading that priority through to enacting accountability, monitoring results and rewarding effectiveness.

“Companies need to incentivize and reward the things that women are doing to create these better working cultures,” says Jess Huang, co-author of the report. “This helps all employees because if it’s rewarded, more leaders will do it.”

Going further, she suggests: ”One solution companies should consider is incorporating criteria into performance reviews that recognizes the work managers are putting into supporting their teams and DEI efforts. Companies should use upward feedback provided by employees on their managers to help take this into account.”

It’s not enough to talk about valuing DEI and supporting the well-being of your employees. More companies need to demonstrate they value the work it takes to make it happen – to retain the leaders that are doing that work.

By Aimee Hansen

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World Water Day 2022: Why Water Is A Women’s Issue

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World Water Day 2022From morning cups of coffee to the successful operations of our homes and businesses—water is essential to our daily lives. Imagine your morning, your afternoon, and your bedtime routines without access to safe water. What challenges would you experience? How would this limit your choices? What would a lack of access to water prevent you from doing?

Right now, a lack of access to safe water at home is why 771 million people around the world remain trapped in a cycle of poverty. And those who suffer the most are women and girls, which is critical to highlight since it is International Women’s History Month. Their lives are disproportionately affected by the water crisis as they have no choice but to spend hours daily, collecting the water their families need to survive. Globally, women and girls spend 200 million hours on the task each day. Time and energy spent collecting water means time and energy not invested in opportunities like earning an income, starting a business, or going to school. This is why the global water crisis is a women’s crisis.

And this is why theglasshammer.com is bringing this issue to our readers. As part of the global community of women, we have the opportunity to use our influence to make a positive difference in other women’s lives.

The water crisis is a women’s crisis

There is an inextricable link between the global goal to ensure universal access to clean water and sanitation by 2030, Sustainable Development Goal 6, and the global goal to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls, Sustainable Development Goal 5. To solve gender equality, we must solve the water crisis. And to solve the water crisis, we must look to new sources of capital.

Ending the water crisis will unlock the power and potential of women and girls globally but right now, there is not enough money dedicated to solving it. This is why millions of women, girls, and their families remain trapped in a cycle of poverty, unable to realize their potential as contributors to their household incomes and the global economy. The World Bank estimates that to achieve universal access to safe water and sanitation, it will cost approximately $114 billion a year between now and 2030, and those are only the costs for constructing new infrastructure, not the costs of operating and maintaining infrastructure over time. Meanwhile, Official Development Assistance (ODA) hovers around $13 billion a year – far short of what is needed. Mechanisms that strategically use donor finance to catalyze private investment are critical to filling the financing gap, and Water.org is well-poised to help the global community move forward.

Empowered women empower other women

This is where you, your position as a leader, and your philanthropy can help drive change for women living in poverty. The reality is access to a water tap or toilet at home costs money upfront and women who lack access to safe water and sanitation often cannot afford the investment. Water.org focuses on removing this financial barrier.

With your support, we help women and families in need get access to small loans through our local, partner financial institutions so they can pay for the upfront costs of establishing lasting water connections and sanitation solutions. They make affordable payments over time and their loans are repaid at a rate of 99%. This is because with safe water at home, they can swap the hours once spent on water collection for time to earn and explore their financial potential. This approach gives women choices, it is immensely empowering, and it is working. To date we’ve helped change more than 43 million lives with safe water and the pace of our impact is increasing.

Case Study: Read about how a small loan empowered Patricia (pictured) and her family in Kenya with affordable, lasting access to safe water.

An investment in water is an investment in women

Our solution is in high demand, sustainable, and reaching people in need. Eighty-eight percent of borrowers are women and the majority of households borrowing the loans live on less than $3.73 a day. Your investment in water will help reduce poverty and give women more choices.

Join us. Our work to help the world reach a critical goal – safe water and sanitation for all – drives our desire to make a dollar go as far as possible. Our donors recognize that giving to Water.org is a smart investment. And our funding partners know that working with us is a smart business decision. Together, with women leaders like you, we can change more lives, faster and more efficiently.

Call-to-Action: Go to Water.org to learn more about how you can help empower women, girls, and their families with affordable, lasting access to the safe water they need to survive and thrive. ​

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OP-Ed: International Women’s Day 2022: Burnout, Sustainability and What Matters?

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International Women's Day 2022Many companies focus myopically on International Women’s Day. This year #BreaktheBias and
 gender and climate are the annual themes, depending on your source. But, as founder and fifteen 
years in here at theglasshammer, it is hard to believe that these slogans and themes that come and
 go every year create any change at all. People wants Acts, Not Ads from companies, and
 professional hard-working women are tired of the lip service and want to see the talk, walked.

As 
we enter year three of the global pandemic, with so many of us doing extreme amounts of work, 
and some of us also still balancing childcare with covid related closures of daycares and schools, 
isn’t it time to ask ourselves how can professional women and men (and especially anyone who 
has second and third shifts with kids and aging parents) do balance and self-care, better? What 
matters? And what role do firms have in creating the workplace of the future that we are ready to 
be in, now? This International Women’s Day, the manifesto should be to take a day off.
 Tomorrow the work will still be there!

Overwork and Burnout


There is work and then there is overwork. Chances are if you are reading this article, you have 
spent at least some of your career in the overwork zone. You probably work in financial, legal or
 professional services, in technology firms, big pharma, manufacturing, media or Fortune 500.
 You are probably a go-getter, highly ambitious and very successful. You probably have engaged
 some of the usual methods and possess some of the characteristics often needed to get to the top, including old fashioned hard and long work, a
 competitive nature, cognitive smarts, higher than average EQ to read the room, and a belief that
 improvement is always possible. Possibly three generations of professional women are reading 
this article with similar, yet evolving, culturally programmed definitions of success regarding wealth, status
 and career ladder climb concepts.

Is the extreme achievement mindset in sync with your life
goals, your health and mental wellness? Is overachievement about meeting other people’s 
standards or earning your worth?


Dr. Devon Price, like many of us, came to his senses regarding extreme productivity after a health
 emergency. He insists that we should stop valuing ourselves in terms of our productivity at
 work. In the book, Laziness Does Not Exist, he affirms that ‘we don’t have to earn our
 right to exist’ with overwork and endless achievement.

Advice includes to listen to your body and to forget grinding away all the time to meet arbitrary
 standards. By reframing what being ‘lazy’ means, versus the allure of validation through
 achievement, a healthier, happier you can emerge.

“Laziness is usually a warning sign from our bodies and our mind that we need a break.”

In an interview with NPR, he discusses why we rationalize working so hard, and how asking for 
help, and helping others to helps us, prevents tiredness from overwork but also facilitates us to be better
, due to feeling less exhausted as “our brains take micro-naps either way.”


It isn’t just you.

In several recent studies, isolated overwork came up as the most demotivating factor and biggest
 reason people are quitting jobs. This isn’t new news. Back in 2017, Inc magazine reported on employees 
quitting when leaders overwork people, show zero empathy and don’t respect time when people
 are out of the office living their lives, but it is further accentuated by the pandemic. 
Microsoft conducted an employee indexing survey of 30,000 that resulted in a study called
 “The Next Great Disruption is Hybrid Work – Are we Ready?”

By looking at trends including 
desire for flexible work and hybrid structures, the study reiterated what their CEO Satya Nadella 
called the hybrid work paradox. This study reveals that while people want more flexibility and remote 
options, they also seek deep human social connection. The same study reveals that high
 productivity is masking employee exhaustion and overwork. It states measurable uptick over the
 course of the year –  February 2020 to February 2021 –  on volume of emails sent, 66% increase on 
people working on documents, and meeting usage on teams increased in volume and time on
 meeting applications.

Uncovering your own Competing Agendas

Isn’t it time you figured out what you want for you? Start with your values. Take a look at what
 matters to you on this worksheet – literally, pick ten words that mean the most and then rank them
 1-10, with one being what you value most. Are your actions matching your values? Are you
 living a humdrum existence while your top value is adventure? Are you spending fourteen hours 
a day at work when your top value is family? Now is a great to re-evaluate what matters to 
you. Be yourself, everyone else is taken as the adage goes.

If you had trouble thinking about how all of this meets reality, or deciding what your values are
, or felt conflicted, that is part of the journey too. Hyper achievement and superhuman
 productivity are sometimes part of deep developmental gremlins that have made their way into 
our heads over time, so we can’t see any other way to be, making them our base operating 
system with everything else being an app on top. Kegan and Lahey, Developmental 
psychologists at Harvard, really have a superb method in their book, Immunity to Change, to 
help you figure out what your unconscious mind is doing to you while you happily goal set in
 your conscious mind all day long regarding work, fitness and home life. We are all a product of 
whatever beliefs and paradigms that we have accumulated throughout our life and if your
 granny/dad/mother/friend told you words to live by, chances are you are doing just that, 
implicitly following some guidelines without even knowing.

What are your saboteurs? There is another easy way to find out what is going on inside your own 
head by taking this short quiz on “How we self-sabotage” by Positive Intelligence. It is key to
 understand what is going on with yourself and what your self-talk is likely to be telling you.
 Let’s start with the gremlins. If you have something like hyperachievement as your top saboteur,
 then it is likely you will justify the overworking with sentences like ‘I must be effective and 
efficient, and ’emotions get in the way of performance.’ Or if you have a high control saboteur,
 you might be telling yourself things like, ‘well if I don’t do it, who will?’ Or, that people need
 people like you to get the job done. Show yourself some compassion and a great book to
 understand how to even begin to approach such a daunting task is Radical Compassion by Tara
 Brach. It is normal to feel your feelings and that includes joy.

In short, honor yourself on International Women’s Day by taking stock of what matters to you now, and how closely your own life feels aligned to that.

We are starting a Spring coaching cohort in May for sustainable success in 2022. Cost is $3,999 
per person and includes a yearlong program with 6 sessions of executive coaching, peer coaching
 and career development training. Limited spots, contact nicki@theglasshammer.com and write
 spring coaching cohort in the title of the email.

By Nicki Gilmour, Founder and CEO of theglasshammer.com

Nicki founded theglasshammer in 2007 to inspire, inform and empower professional women in their careers. We have been the leading and longest running career advice online and in person media company in the USA for professional women in financial services.

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OP-ed: Menopause at Work – A Call To Action

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A senior HR official at a Fortune 500 company recently told me that women at her company routinely refuse to accept recognition awards for their years of service. Why? Because they don’t want people to know their age. Had that ever happened with a man, I asked? Never, she replied.

menopause at workOur society does not value age and aging, particularly in women. For women in the workplace and in other leadership positions, this double whammy of sexism and ageism is pernicious. As a result, many of us take steps to avoid drawing attention to our age. So when it comes to menopause, a unique marker of aging for women, it’s complicated. Even my most confident and successful friends and contemporaries become uncomfortable when talking about menopause. The stigma is real. We endure the stereotypes of angry women fanning themselves through hot flashes, while the silver fox goes happily about his business.

I am passionate about menopause because I believe that we are doing women and the people important to them a disservice by not talking more openly about the effects that menopause can have on some women, particularly at work. Many of us are in our prime professionally during these years, with senior positions of responsibility and management. It goes without saying (or it should) that having more women in C-suite positions is a good thing. Among other things, companies with greater C-suite diversity are shown to be more profitable, and more socially responsible.

The status quo of ignoring menopause is not ok. Menopause has a real effect on many women at work, as shown in this recent study, from Standard Chartered Bank and the Financial Services Skills commission in the UK. It delves into the effect that menopause is having on the financial services sector. A key finding centers around loss of talent due to menopausal symptoms – the study found that a quarter of employees experiencing menopausal symptoms said that they were more likely to leave the workforce early because of their experience. And the very real stigma around menopause means that only 22% are comfortable talking about it.

So what is menopause? The average age for menopause in the US is 51, and experienced by every cisgender woman (and some non-binary and transgender people.) Menopause marks the day when you have not had a period for 12 months. The time leading up to menopause is perimenopause, which generally begins in the mid 40s and lasts on average seven years. Perimenopause is caused by fluctuations in hormones, and this is when menopausal symptoms may start. During this time, periods may be uneven, heavier than normal, or irregular. You may have hot flashes, night sweats, brain fog, difficulty concentrating, heightened anxiety, reduced libido, weight gain (especially around the waist), heart palpitations, vaginal dryness, sleeping issues, or stiff and aching joints. In fact, there are 34 widely reported symptoms of menopause. 80% of women experience the most common symptoms, hot flashes and night sweats. For 15% of women, they are severe. For women who enter menopause surgically, perhaps due to a hysterectomy or cancer treatment, symptoms are often worse. The symptom that women find the most bothersome? Difficulty sleeping. Not surprising, as lack of sleep affects all other aspects of life. These menopausal symptoms don’t stop when your periods end; they often last for several years after you are officially in menopause, though they typically taper off. Once you have hit one year with no periods –a moment that can only be marked retroactively– you are post-menopausal. You will remain in this state the rest of your life.

Many women are familiar with the more common perimenopausal symptoms, but most don’t realize that their heightened anxiety, heart palpitations, sudden waking up in the middle of the night, lack of confidence, or difficulty remembering words might all be related to the fluctuating hormones of menopause. We tend to think of menopause as a gynecological issue, but it is so much more than that. It affects every organ in our body, and none more so than the brain. In fact, anti-depressants are often misprescribed during perimenopause: one study suggests that more than 60% of women have been inappropriately given antidepressants for low mood associated with menopause (and they won’t work if the cause is fluctuating hormones). It’s also important to note that menopause comes with many positives: no more periods! No more worrying about getting accidentally pregnant!

So what can we do to destigmatize menopause? Here are a few suggestions for actions to take, both personally and in your workplace.

  • Get Educated. Understanding what happens during the (potentially very long!) perimenopausal period can shed some light on what can feel like uncontrollable, out-of-nowhere struggles, like those sudden middle of the night wakings or lack of confidence. It’s often difficult to untangle perimenopausal symptoms from the normal stresses of life (particularly these days). But understanding what happens during menopause, knowing that it is transitory and that you have agency, is important. A good, fact based, very readable book on the subject is Dr. Jen Gunter’s ‘The Menopause Manifesto’. A new non-profit, letstalkmenopause.org, has some great resources, and balance-menopause.com, developed by the UK’s leading menopause physician, has a lot of fact based information (and a great app, too).
  • If you are suffering, seek help. Menopause is a natural transition, but that doesn’t mean it’s ok to suffer. You have options for treatment. Your OB-GYN should be your first call, but don’t be discouraged if they aren’t as helpful as you hoped: there is, sadly, a huge gap in care for menopausal women. Shockingly, just 20% of OB-GYN residency programs provide any kind of menopause training. The North American Menopause Society (NAMS) has a list of certified menopause practioners. There are also new services specifically focused on menopausal women; Gennev, Elektra Health and Alloy, for example.
  • Talk to your HR department. The more that this issue is raised, the better. Ask what benefits your company has for menopausal women. Have your women’s group do an information session. Give a training on menopause for managers. Asking for information and resources will bring the issue to the fore. The more menopause is raised, the more your company will start to recognize it as a life event that should be supported just as fertility and pregnancy are, and treated with as much sensitivity as mental health.
  • Talk to your colleagues, friends and family. Be part of breaking the stigma. While you may be uncomfortable talking about menopause at work, sharing your experience with trusted colleagues educates, empowers, and normalizes. And if you aren’t comfortable talking about it at work, talk to your friends! It’s helpful to understand what other women are going through, and to share your experiences. Don’t forgot your partners and family too: it’s important they understand what you are going through. There are also some great online communities: the apps Peanut and Perry have good menopause support groups.

Menopause is a natural, essential stage of life. It can also add to what’s already a stressful time – kids, parents, work, COVID. But by empowering ourselves and our communities with knowledge, support, and the right medical help, we can march into the next half of life with joy, strength and power.

About the writer:

Kate Brashares (she/her) is the co-Founder and CEO of a new startup, Hello Maisy, focused on developing clinically proven, effective products and services that are being designed to support women through all life stages, with an initial focus on perimenopause, menopause and healthy aging. She is passionate about building and growing organizations that drive societal change and improve health outcomes. Previously Kate was the Executive Director of Edible Schoolyard NYC, and has also worked in brand marketing and finance. Kate has a B.A from Cambridge University and an M.B.A. from Columbia University.

Help us find out more! We are conducting a survey to find out more about women’s experience with menopause. Please fill in the anonymous survey here.

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Black History Month 2022: Why bell hooks was right

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bell hooksBefore the word ‘intersectionality’ was coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1989, bell hooks critiqued a narrowed feminism that hailed from the white middle class living room and neither addressed interlocking webs of oppression nor recognized its own race and class privileges – therefore, blindly disregarding the multidimensional plights of non-white, underprivileged women.

Her message has become undeniably resonant over the last two years – and not the least of all, her argument that humanity would need to brave the revolutionary path of deep self awareness and self actualization, as she taught, “once you learn to look at yourself critically, you look at everything around you with new eyes”.

A Revolutionary Feminism For Everyone

With her death on December 15th of last year, bell hooks, born as Gloria Jean Watkins in 1952, left behind a legacy, as well as over 40 books in 15 different languages, of challenging and championing feminism.

In her book Ain’t I a Woman? Black Women and Feminism, she grounded her feminist approach in the struggles of black women. In Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center, she proposed a revolutionary feminism: “Feminism is a movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation, and oppression.”

Further, hooks wrote, “The foundation of a future feminist struggle must be solidly based on a recognition of the need to eradicate the underlying cultural basis and causes of sexism and other forms of group oppression. Without challenging and changing these philosophical structures, no feminist reforms will have a long-range impact.” Black feminist writer Barbara Smith wrote that anything less than a feminism that freed all women was “not feminism, but merely female self-aggrandizement”.

hooks also advocated that feminism was not men versus women, but all versus sexism, a conditioning both present in and oppressive to everyone. She wrote: “And that clarity helps us remember that all of us, female and male, have been socialized from birth on to accept sexist thought and action,” later continuing, “To end patriarchy (another way of naming the institutionalized sexism) we need to be clear that we are all participants in perpetuating sexism until we change our minds and hearts, until we let go of sexist thought and action and replace it with feminist thought and action.”

Emphasizing that oppression costs too much to everyone, including to those who overtly benefit from it, she called for ending sexism, racism, class elitism, and imperialism through not reform, but a revolution of self-actualization. She asserted any real movement of social justice to be based in the ethic of love, writing in her work Outlaw Culture: Resisting Representations, “The moment we choose to love we begin to move against domination, against oppression. The moment we choose to love we begin to move towards freedom, to act in ways that liberate ourselves and others.”

And yet with her departure, we still stand in our half-awoken adolescence of realizing the necessity of self-development she spent her life advocating for.

A Workplace That Is Still Damagingly Exclusive

According to authors in Harvard Business Review, women of color are still culturally encouraged to be grateful for what they have, discouraged when declining undervalued work or seeking greater power and resources, and often fear backlash. Meanwhile, the angry black woman stereotype “not only characterizes Black women as more hostile, aggressive, overbearing, illogical, ill-tempered and bitter, but it may also be holding them back from realizing their full potential in the workplace — and shaping their work experiences overall.”

Whereas anger is a normal workplace emotion, when  expressed by a black women particularly, it’s perceived (assumed) as a personality trait – rather than due to validating external circumstances, despite little substantiation for that perception. Meanwhile black women often find themselves stereotyped, kid-gloved or imposing tone policing on their own voices. Echoing hooks in regards to self-development, the researchers suggest an antidote to this is deeper self-reflection and empathy by those in the workforce.

Even well-intentioned leaders can put extra responsibilities and burdens on successful black women in the office. When black women are implicitly seen to speak as representative for a group, rather than for themselves, or when they are disproportionately committed to external opportunities as visible symbols of parading a company’s diversity, the pressure and time commitment can be overwhelming. Meanwhile, the stereotype of the strong black woman means managers are less likely to check in to see if they are doing okay with managing the workload. Couple that with it being societally instilled that black women will have to work twice as hard as others to succeed.

Not only this, but the perception gap creates a gaslighting of the workplace experience for black women – McKinsey notes that black employees are 23% less likely to see there is support to advance, 41% less likely to view the promotion process as fair and 39% less likely to feel the company’s DE&I program are effective, relative to white colleagues. Gallup found that black women are less likely to feel valued, treated fairly and respected in the workplace. Consistently, the experience of fairness and organizational commitment to addressing bias is lower for them, and they are also less likely to consider themselves as thriving.

When it comes to women of color and the multidimensional factors they face, the glass ceiling has been reframed as a concrete ceiling. Too often the corporate definition of leadership has proven to exclude women of color – with standards of what leadership looks still contingent upon traits most associated with white males.

If you question that, consider that a study has recently shown that black women are indeed penalized for natural hairstyles in an interview setting, as authors wrote: “Black women with natural hairstyles were perceived to be less professional, less competent, and less likely to be recommended for a job interview than Black women with straightened hairstyles and white women with either curly or straight hairstyles.”

The emotional tax black women are paying to be in workplaces rife with conscious and unconscious incidences of exclusion is not an abstract concept – it’s visible in functional MRI brain scans, which show that black women who have experienced more incidents of racism have greater response activity in the brain regions most associated with vigilance and anticipating incoming threats. This ultimately can have a trauma-like impact on health.

The researchers also state that “a disproportionately high amount of brain power may go into regulating, or inhibiting, their emotional responses to these situations” – which is consuming energy that could otherwise be put into well-being, thriving, creating and innovating.

Inclusion Does Rest Upon Collective Self-Development

So amidst the Great Resignation, black women are leaving the workforce in record numbers, with a track record of having outpaced all other women when it comes to daring the journey of entrepreneurship and achieving business growth within it.

With research indicating that “one of the fastest ways to accelerate change and effectively begin to address the racial wealth gap is to listen to and invest in Black women,” Goldman Sachs launched, in partnership with Black women-led organizations and others, the One Million Black Women initiative – committing $10 billion in investment capital and $100 million in philanthropic support to be focused on key moments, from early childhood to retirement, that offer the greatest possibility to narrow the opportunity gaps and positively impact lives.

Meanwhile, Gallup asserts that the exclusion experiences of black women in the workplace can be largely addressed by managers, as the crux of feeling engaged comes from coaching. Seeking to coach and sponsor those who are under-championed is where you begin – getting to know and support every person, in their individual strengths and challenges, is where engagement is created. Gallup suggests that to be inclusive, more workplaces need to train their managers to become coaches.

As summarized in the Journal of International Women’s Studies, hooks consistently advocated that only “the self-development of a people will shake up the cultural basis of group oppression.”

Haven’t the prominent themes of the last couple years – braving the difficult conversations, recognizing the unconscious biases in everyone, listening to the experiences of others, cultivating a personal growth mindset of being open to being wrong and learning – echoed the message of this visionary, who emphasized our interconnectedness and collective responsibility to expose the ideology of the status quo that exists in each of us?

As hooks wrote: “No level of individual self-actualization alone can sustain the marginalized and oppressed. We must be linked to collective struggle, to communities of resistance that move us outward, into the world.”

By Aimee Hansen

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Why Introverts Are Needed In the Workplace

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introverts at workWhen you enter the corporate world as an introvert, one of the first hurdles you may have to overcome is the societal expectation that you should behave more like an extrovert. The temptation to be someone you are not can be overwhelming and may lead to disappointment and missed opportunities. What if rather than hiding who you are, though, you were able to listen to your own wise inner voice and use your unique communication style and let your true personality shine through while also contributing tremendous value to your organizations and teams?

The reality is that if you are willing to stretch and grow and be a little bit vulnerable, if you are willing to stop being who people expect you to be and to start experimenting with being curious, listening more, and showing your real quirky self to the world, you may be surprised at the results. When you stop talking only about business, stop trying to be the loudest, smartest, most confident person in the room, you are then able to access your unique introverted abilities and wield them like a superpower.

The Advantages of Being an Introvert in Business

Let’s look at some well known introverts who demonstrate this every day. In his article, 23 of the Most Amazingly Successful Introverts in History, John Rampon tells us that many industry giants are not only introverts but their success shatters stereotypes about what it means to be an introvert in the business world. Among others he shares with us that Marissa Meyer, current Yahoo! CEO, has admitted that “I’m just geeky and shy and I like to code…” He and numerous other sources quote Bill Gates as saying, “ …if you’re clever you can learn to get the benefits of being an introvert, which might be, say, being willing to go off for a few days and think about a tough problem, read everything you can, push yourself very hard to think out on the edge of that arena.”

This comes as no surprise when you look at research done by organizational psychologist Adam Grant. His findings not only confirm that there is no real long-term difference in the effectiveness of introverted and extroverted leaders, but that in some situations, introverts actually outperform their extroverted colleagues. For example, his findings show that introverts really shine in situations where creativity and team cohesion matter. They are more likely to be better listeners and to encourage creativity and to form deep and meaningful relationships with team members.

If you think back over your own personal experiences, you may have found this to be true at times in your personal experience also. Can you remember a time when you listened deeply and collaborated with another individual only to find that you had effortlessly built a relationship without even really trying? That ability is the secret sauce that introverts often don’t even know they possess because they are trying to so hard to act like extroverts instead of tapping into their natural relationship and problem-solving abilities. When introverts tap into their unique ability to listen, collaborate, problem solve and build trust, they are a quiet but powerful force in an organization that helps share a diverse orchestra of talent that works together to create a beautiful symphony of diverse abilities.

A 2002 study by Nassbaum supports this idea and reveals that introverts are in fact more likely to work together to find solutions to problems and to listen to and ask for other people’s suggestions. They are more willing to consider new ideas and are less attached to their own personal ideas. This allows team members to feel valued and free to share their ideas and for clients to feel cared for and part of the problem-solving process when issues arise. When introverts let go of the expectation to come up with all solutions on their own and to be the most engaging person in the room and just let themselves be a safe place for others to express themselves, relationships blossom from that organically.

A study by Rehana Noman in the International Journal of Research in Medical Sciences reveals that more than 79% of introverts rely on their intuition, inner feelings and reactions to make decisions rather than making snap impulsive decisions. This is compared to 50% of extroverts who report making snap impulsive decisions on their own. The most successful introverts know their strength comes from their natural ability to listen not only to their own intuition but also to seek input from others and to cultivate deep long-term relationships one at a time. They may not woo a room of a hundred people in one fell swoop or shake 50 hands in a night, but just like the proverbial tortoise and hare, they move slowly but surely across the finish line. Over time they gather speed as one relationship leads to another and then another. Initially it may take longer for their careers to take off but the willingness to be open and vulnerable can create a feeling of reciprocity that naturally leads to long term relationships and a surprisingly large network of clients, colleagues and referral partners that form a solid foundation for growth.

Supporting Introverts Helps Your Organization Thrive

The problem comes when a workplace is set up in such a way that introverts don’t have a chance to have a voice or use their unique strengths. For instance, let’s look at another study by Adam Grant of Wharton with his colleague, Dave Hofmann of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. They studied a U.S. pizza-delivery chain and found that introverts’ strengths are often locked up simply because of the way work is structured. If in meetings only the loudest voices are given a chance to share ideas or employees are pitted against each other to find solutions, then any solutions presented will naturally come only from the extraverts and solutions that might otherwise be found are squashed by the loudest voices. On the other hand, if meetings are structured in a way that everyone has a chance to speak, or introverts are given opportunities to lead small teams, that creates a culture and space in the organization that allows room for their natural creativity, intuition, and desire to collaborate, and results follow.

How does an organization get the most of our its Introverts? It creates a work culture that allows introverts to be themselves, have a voice, to lead small groups and to have opportunities to build deep meaningful relationships one at a time. By holding space for both personality types, leaders and organizations can access the unique skillsets and characteristics that both personality types bring to the table and reap the rewards of a neurologically diverse and productive workforce.

By: Monica Parkin is a self professed introvert, an award winning International speaker, author of Overcoming Awkward, the Introverts Guide to Networking Marketing and Sales and Podcast host at the Juggling Without Balls Podcast. Find out more at monicaparkin.ca, connect with her on LinkedIn or email her at info@monicaparkin.ca

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Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (MLK) – The Thinker.

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When I came to the U.S. almost twenty years ago, I saw a day off work in January and started asking questions. People in Corporate America, of all elks and creeds, didn’t seem to have many answers for me. My friends who lived in the boroughs (we were in our 20’s so rent was cheaper in Brooklyn then), who were all multicultural or first generation, did not have much for me either. In fact, it took many years to truly understand what this day off work was about, aside from being told that MLK pioneered civil rights –  which of course is a very basic statement on a complicated process which resulted in progress at a high cost for many.

Next month, here on theglasshammer.com, I will write on race and societal dynamics and tackle the hard conversations. Today, I want to simply revere Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as a great thinker on many topics. He was a futurist and a “systems thinker” about many subjects – including war, democracy and militarism, and made a lesser known speech that is worth a listen today. So instead of posting out of context inspirational quotes from him, I wanted to share this video with you on his thoughts about Vietnam.

He was a man who thought deeply about values and hypocrisy. He understood the effects of economic poverty. He was a man of peace. He was a Capricorn. He wasn’t just a person to quote on a Monday in January to virtue signal in a social media meme world.

He spoke to students about believing in themselves and having a determinism to achieve excellence, whatever their work field of choice, and to create a blueprint for their life. To study hard no matter what and do a good job. What parent wouldn’t like their child to hear a speech like this?

Wherever you are on your journey regarding emotions filtered via subjective life experiences, and reactions to others and their beliefs and thoughts regarding systemic issues that today show up on the political spectrum as politicized topics: I ask you to stop, be a human and listen to this human.

We do not know what Martin Luther King would make of life today. The closest we can get to that is via the voices of his children, and his daughter in particular, Dr. Bernice King. But I do know it would be interesting to hear his intellectual and spiritual take on the goings-on of modern day society.

We want to profile interesting women always on theglasshammer.com and we want professional women of all creeds. If you would like to be profiled or contribute an op-ed or well researched article that the readers of our niche online publication would find valuable, please email nicki@theglasshammer.com. This is a digital campfire for women to tell their stories around, and for fifteen years we have brought you this platform day in, day out as we believe in our values of “informing, inspiring and empowering” professional women.

Enjoy MLK day however you spend it here in the U.S. and happy Monday to the rest of the world.

By Nicki Gilmour, Founder and CEO of theglasshammer.com

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Year In Review 2021: The Great Reckoning

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Year in Review 2021The great resignation has taken the main stage for big news for professionals and career path navigation in 2021. With the pandemic still raging, there has been a widespread re-evaluation with “what really matters?” being the theme for professional women and men alike. The great reckoning of “does this work, and work for me?” has emerged from a combination of elements that have brought people to a point where they want to look more deeply at their values and how those values align with their workplace and firm culture, beyond the paycheck alone.

Realities such as exhaustion or burnout effect are much higher in 2021 than 2020 due to the ongoing slog of Covid and the effects it has on all aspects of life and work. McKinsey/Lean In’s most recent report on Women in the Workplace 2021 states 42% of women feel burned out regularly in 2021 as opposed to a reported 32% in 2020 and more than men in both years.

Conversely, in the same report, progress is shown at between 6-24% for the pipeline of future female senior managers and leaders, with the most progress being at SVP and C-suite levels but still not surpassing a third of all leaders in these positions. However, as someone who has covered this topic deeply for the best part of fifteen years, I want to underline that 6% may not seem big, but it can be considered as progress finally after many stalled years. This is at least a trend in the right direction of progress and you can see the numbers and insights and analysis on them from theglasshammer.com from 2011 here in all Year in Reviews.

Active Listening- Feeling Heard is Important

Is the world changing for the better? As it pertains to not tolerating overt sexism and racism, yes clearly it is, as everyone is quicker to pour light on things that just don’t fly anymore.

In fact, men are starting to behaviorally show up as allies when they should and interestingly a new Catalyst study suggests this can be dependent on whether they feel they will be heard as humans, on many topics as well as this specific one. Manager openness to hearing inputs and suggestions, from how the job should be done to elements regarding culture such as inclusion, increases the chance of men speaking up against sexism from 35% to 62%.

Feeling heard is a human trait, no one likes to think they are talking to a brick wall or invisible, yet 80% of my leadership development assignment as an executive coach to senior Wall Street women and men involves delivering the bad news that peers and direct reports feel that managers don’t listen to them. Kate Murphy’s book You’re Not Listening: What You’re Missing and Why It Matters is a compelling journalistic exploration of what happens when people listen to each other, which can apply to any relationship, spouse, friend or child as well as to being a better executive or manager. Surely, now is the time for managers to listen?

Opportunity in Disruption

‘The Great Resignation’ doesn’t have to threaten diversity efforts, but rather isn’t it time to do things better and in some cases, differently?

Some people might want to go back to the office some or even all of the time, while others might want to stay working from home some, most or all of the time- and with most landing on the same preference of being given the choice to make their own decisions. What leaders seem to be missing is that it is about empowering people with choices to control their time, not mandating face time in the building.

In fact, this topic is very much about leadership development and mindset shift. Susan Ashford, Professor in the Management and Organizations group at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, explores the concept of flexing as a growth mindset for leaders. She discusses empowering people to know their needs and to be radical in their own “self management” in her new book about leadership learning called The Power of Flexing. This concept of letting employees get on with it on their terms in this Covid era world is backed up by research by Peter Capelli, Director of the Center for Human Resources at Wharton University, who suggests that in fact, many people are finding that they are thriving in a remote or a hybrid version of work. This study reveals that people are motivated when they are achieving their goals along with two very important things: feeling valued, which is the biggest driver, and being within a supported and inclusive environment. Capelli’s research also shows that getting tasks done to create a sense of purpose alone comes in last as a motivation driver, so endless piles of work in the wrong isolating conditions can lead to disengagement and quitting.

Adam Grant, Professor of Psychology at Wharton, researched back in 2007 how employee performance is increased when there is a feeling of helping an actual human by meeting with them to know about their issue and having the ability to try and help. Putting a face to a name seems to matter, and as face to face human contact has been reduced in the past eighteen months, it will be interesting when we see future research into videoconferencing (as a close second or even as a replacement?). It does seem like some major Fortune 500 companies are taking the leap of faith that remote work is the future with PwC announcing that it will allow all 40,000 of its US client services employees to work virtually and remotely, with the UK office following suit with an additional 22,000 people allowed to work remotely.

Aligning People and Technology

Getting leaders to understand the importance of aligning the human side with the operational and technological side is key to engage and retain talent – it’s futurism and that requires a lot of mental complexity as systems thinking will need to be applied. Are leaders up for the challenge?

To create the workplace of the future, it is key to start with the workforce of the future. Meryl Rosenthal, CEO of Flexpaths, has been pioneering remote and flex work for all since 2005. She sees the trend as here to stay and knows the role of leaders is crucial to success.

She comments, 
“As hybrid work increasingly becomes a reality across organizations, ensuring that alignment at the top doesn’t wane is key. At FlexPaths we are seeing more and more companies ill-prepared for the downstream impacts of poorly implemented hybrid work. With plummeting engagement, uncertain executives and ineffective communication, now is the time to focus on leaders on why it is important to get a plan as the future is now”.

People Want Acts not Ads

Finally, evolved employers must realize that employees want to see real acts, not just lip service and advertising around issues that are value-driven. Whether it is working remotely or responding to social or environmental issues, it is crucial that corporations understand that walking the talk and closing the identity gap between espoused and lived values happens. Data of both quantitative and qualitative nature is required to understand what people expect from their employer. If your company was a person, would you want to hang out with them?

We believe diversity and gender issues can be solved when companies finally understand that organizational development is important and that diversity is not about a Noah’s Ark approach but rather about lived experience. Behaviors matter as they all add up to create culture.

We wish everyone a happy, safe, peaceful and joyful festive season. See you in 2022.

By Nicki Gilmour, Founder and CEO of theglasshammer.com

Nicki founded theglasshammer in 2007 to inspire, inform and empower professional women in their careers. We have been the leading and longest running career advice online and in person media company in the USA for professional women in financial services.

We also provide executive coaching services and organizational coaching under our sister brand evolvedpeople.com

Thank you to all readers, sponsors, supporters and contributors over the past 15 years. We couldn’t do it without you!

For the women by the women.

If you want to coached by Nicki in 2022, write to her nicki@theglasshammer – to find out more about the process. She works with VP level and above.

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OP-Ed: The Economic Cost of the Menopause

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Lesley Tait - menopauseIs it just me or does anyone else see the revolving boardroom door contributing to the economic cost of menopause?

The conversation is warming up. It’s capturing media attention. Celebrities and even politicians are endorsing the movement to normalise the conversation. They’re shining a spotlight on the necessity to overtly acknowledge the menopause for the sake of womankind.

But there’s another angle here and that is the economic implications that are hiding in plain sight.

Menopausal women are the fastest-growing demographic in the workplace, but worldwide, they’re sliding into perimenopause at an age when they’re at the peak of their careers.

According to the ‘Women in the Workplace 2021’ report by McKinsey, it’s women who are doing more to support their teams and advance diversity, equity, and inclusion.

There’s a plethora of research suggesting that companies with a higher percentage of women in senior leadership positions, are more profitable because women bring a different mindset to the business world and their emotional intelligence is far more superior.

But this isn’t a case for supporting women in business, that’s a non-negotiable. The issue is whose supporting them in doing this critical work and to what cost if their emotional wellness is being tested, and they themselves feel under valued and isolated.

The statistics around this demonstrate the urgency. A 2021 survey conducted by Circle Health in conjunction with the Victorian Women’s Trust revealed some truths about what’s really going on in the workplace:

  • 83% of women said their work was negatively affected
  • 58% said managing their work was challenging
  • 48% struggled with a drop in confidence
  • 46% felt stressed by having to hide their experience
  • 45% considered retiring or taking a career break

The results go on to highlight the lack of support available for women in the workplace. Maybe this is due to the blissful ignorance of employers or maybe there’s an inherent embarrassment of poking around in a subject related the female reproductive system.

Another survey conducted by BUPA in conjunction with the CIPD found that three in five menopausal women, usually aged between 45 and 55 were ‘negatively affected at work’. And that ‘almost 900,000 women in the UK left their jobs over an undefined period of time because of menopausal symptoms’.

While the number of women representing board positions in FTSE 100 companies has increased there is another dimension we must consider if they’re to remain there. So what impact is menopause having on the talent pipeline?

Aside from the risk posed to the pool of talented and skilled female expertise there’s the wider impact on productivity, morale and diversity which all lead back to the bottom line. It’s estimated that 14 million working days are lost each year due to menopausal related symptoms, and in the last 3 years, menopausal related tribunal cases have tripled.

The prevalence of menopause policies is increasing but it’s not enough to just tick the menopause policy box, publish it on the intranet and assume it’s covered. It’s not, and it happens.

I worked for a FTSE 100 company for 17 years, and I know there is a policy lurking behind layers of web pages that nobody knows anything about. More importantly, it doesn’t begin to scratch the surface of supporting a woman during this transition. A menopause policy needs to be all encompassing, appeal to employees of all genders, and it needs to have a richness that really supports both the physical and mental impact on women and the ripple effect on colleagues. It needs to engage with stakeholders to understand what precisely that specific environment needs. It needs to weave into a programme that’s immersed so deeply in the culture that it creates a sense of normality. It needs to be quantifiable and the impact measurable.

But there is light on the horizon, and the world is slowly rising from its menopause slumber.

Standard Chartered Bank has partnered with the Financial Services Skills Commission (FSSC) to better understand the challenges faced by women going through the menopause transition at work, and how this impacts the talent pipeline across the UK’s financial services industry. In addition companies such as HSBC UK, Natwest Group and CMS have all been accredited as menopause friendly employers.

In one sense of the word the ‘change’ is here, and it couldn’t be further away in another. We live in an era of equality, diversity and inclusion and we all have a responsibility to play in cracking this taboo.

Look no further than the mirror. If we as women are not comfortable in saying ‘menopause’ how can we expect our husbands, partners, managers and colleagues to get on board with it. It’s easy for me, I’m immersed in my bubble of menopause. I live and breathe it day in and day out although, I admit, I wasn’t at first. What is clear to me is the more I talk about it, the more it’s accepted as the norm, so we need to lead from the front.

We are leaders, entrepreneurs, board members, and there’s no limit to our talent and capabilities. But the responsibility is twofold. As our bodies change, we have a responsibility to adapt. And while there is no legal requirement to introduce menopause policies, employers have a moral, ethical and financial obligation.

Lesley Tait is a Menopause Coach and an Emotional Wellbeing Coach. Lesley specialises in helping corporate women struggling with menopause symptoms resulting in loss of confidence, self esteem issues & performance issues, because of which life & career goals are getting derailed. Find her at: www.hersupremeself.com on LinkedIn, or write to her at lesley@hersupremeself.com

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