Women in Financial Services
Finding our Voice
Rhian Bowler / 17 Feb 2017
Finding our Voice
Men interrupt women, speak over them, and discount their contributions to a discussion with surprising regularity. According to Soraya Chemaly, (The Huffington Post 2014) women should respond with these 10 words; “Stop interrupting me”; “I just said that”; “No explanation needed”.
We regularly coach women dealing with these situations at work. We hear they are often interrupted by men during meetings at work, their comments are ignored, or worse taken by a male member as their own point and given recognition by other men around the table. Recently an E2W member shared a great article (The Washington Post 9/2016) about how the women in Obama’s staff dealt with their male counterparts to make themselves heard. Their ‘Shine theory’ included adopting a meeting strategy called ‘Amplification’. When a woman made a key point, other women would repeat it, giving credit to the owner, forcing the men to recognise it and denying them the chance to make it their own, and steal the credit.
Organisational cultures won’t change overnight, but there are ways women can work together collaboratively to ensure our voices are heard and acknowledged.
Rhian Bowler - E2W Career Coach – Providing support and advise to E2W Members. Members don’t forget Rhian is available for careers advise. You can contact her on rhian.bowler@e2w.co
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