Is
some kind of "assistance" mentality – held over from the days when
women were looked upon as belonging in service roles – still haunting the information
profession? Sometimes, I get a nagging feeling that if I were male,
stakeholders would regard my professional contribution differently – am I out
to lunch here?
Anonymous
You
are touching on a complex topic that could make for a fascinating PhD thesis!
Here’s my very pragmatic view: Let’s focus on projecting a professional image
based on results and value –but let’s not overlook the potential impact of
borrowing the "uniform" idea from the guys!
One
could speculate that the significant demographic shifts we are now seeing,
coupled with the trend for females to outnumber males at secondary education
institutions, may impact views of the relative roles of women and men. But
I’ll have to believe too many other factors play a role.
While
we watch society evolve, we can’t go wrong with two basic strategies:
- First,
in everything we do and communicate, we must echo the organization’s strategic
direction –in other words, we focus on the business at hand rather than on
ourselves as individuals. - Second,
we are smart about the image we project. Studies have been made of the
influence of attire on the perception others have of an individual’s competence
- typically concluding that jackets and blazers influence study participants’
ratings of people in professional positions. I received a valuable lesson at my
first private sector job when a colleague explained why she always donned her
jacket to leave her desk: "You never know who you are going to meet in
the hallway."
What
do the gentlemen think?
Ulla de Stricker