In a previous post, What’s Keeping Women from Succeeding in their Careers – Part 1 I shared that two barriers keep women from advancing their careers. They are: lack of support and lack of know-how. Today I’m going to discuss the lack of know-how.
While bias plays a significant role in blocking women from the positions their seeking, internally, they have barriers to overcome as well:
- Many times, the women leaders I coach are more than ready to advance their careers, but they don’t know what to do. Had they known, many have commented, they would have done it by now. This lack of knowledge can tie back into a lack of support. When an individual is unable to see what is possible, their career goals are limited.
- Women don’t often recognize their value, nor do they know how to break through the mental strongholds that usually keep them from realizing it. From perpetuating limiting beliefs to entertaining imposter syndrome, often, the barrier isn’t even visible.
- Successfully managing one’s personal and professional lives together can be a challenge for any professional. As stated above, with many domestic responsibilities still falling on many women, knowing how to integrate the two worlds proves to be a challenge for many.
- There’s this concept in the literature called fear of success. When an individual has a concern about alienating friends and colleagues because of her career development, she can experience a fear of succeeding that results in her sabotaging her career. This fear happens because she lacks knowledge in managing relationships.
Both internal and external barriers interact in unique and complicated ways and prevent women and other underrepresented groups from realizing true career success. This unrealized success, in turn, impacts the income potential and economic development of these groups. Those that have been successful have learned to navigate their complex situations.
In my next post, I will offer strategies that will help you as a leader or career woman to overcome these obstacles.