4 Learnings from “Women Will”
Women Will is a Grow with Google Program (known as Zukunftswerkstatt in the DACH region)
Today I had the chance to participate at my first Women Will Leadership workshop at Google HQ in Munich. The goal of this program is to support women’s economic potential through digital skills and community building.
I wanted to share with our community some of the key learnings from the workshop and panel; from gender-specific barriers, leadership gap, unconscious bias and imposter syndrome.
The Gender Pay Gap
13.4% is where the global gender pay gap sits nowadays. Scary, right? Now think that in a modern and developed country as in Germany we are at 15.3%
20% is how much more a man earned hourly in 2019 versus a woman. Again, this is related to Germany.
If the above trend continues, it will take 257 years to close the gender pay gap. Very long time!
2. The Leadership Gap
1 out of 3 managers is female in Germany, despite the proportion of female employees growing significantly in recent years.
3. Unconscious Bias
How can we overcome the discomfort with talking unconscious bias?
Lead with respect and curiosity
Remove stigma
Avoid generalizations and “us vs. them” language
Maintain a psychologically safe environment
4. Imposter Syndrome
Another form of bias that impacts women in the workplace is internalizad bias and barriers. This is also known as imposter syndrome, which is a product of how we are raised and how we socialized from a very young age.
Take a look at this video from Inspiring the Future on how we can redraw the balance and avoid so much bias from the age of 6.
I left the room feeling more empowered, connecting with like-minded women who want to support other women in business and in life.
My final takeaway?
Keep building my network, but don’t do it alone.
