Last Updated on February 23, 2019 by Kristen
Women at work on a bomber at Douglas Aircraft Company in 1942, Long Beach, CA. Via Library of Congress
Social media is bursting with #girlbosses, #powerfulwomen, and #badassbabes. A historic 102 women were elected to the House of Representatives in 2018. It feels like women are on the rise! We’re unstoppable!
There’s a lot to be excited about, that’s for sure. But women still represent less than 25% of the total number of elected officials in Congress—not to be a downer. And as Barnard College president Sian Beilock points out, we’re making slow and steady progress on gender equality in the workplace, emphasis on slow.
As we’ve seen time and again, that imbalance can lead to unfair treatment of women at work. So it’s no surprise women often suffer from self doubt that can be hard to deal with, Block writes at Harvard Business Review.
But these crises of confidence don’t have to be crippling. Luckily, there are plenty of science-backed methods for combating negative feelings so you can focus on success and pull up your fellow females with you.
Find (or become) a mentor
Women who are exposed to powerful female role models are more likely to believe that women belong in leadership roles, according to this study. So if you’re a junior level employee, finding a mentor might increase your chances of landing a C-level role. And if you’re more experienced, you’ll be doing womankind a solid if you initiate a mentor relationship with a less experienced colleague.
Write it down
Research shows that journaling makes you feel better about whatever problems you may be grappling with. There’s even a book to help you get started if writing isn’t typically your thing.
Nevermind the impostor syndrome
Research shows that feeling like a fraud does not preclude success. In other words, self doubt is often not crippling at all, and keeping that in mind can help you move forward when you’re feeling like crawling inside a hole.
Reboot your brain
As this research paper puts it, a “break in the attentive activity” might be what you need for a breakthrough. Take a walk, read something completely unrelated to your problem, call a friend to check in. When you go back to the task you were stuck on, you might find that a solution comes seemingly out of the blue.
Reframe setbacks
A study looking at swimmers who failed to qualify for the Olympics found that those who were encouraged to watch replays of their performance, study what went wrong and plan for a better performance next time felt optimistic about their future competitions. Those without such prompting felt a sense of futility after watching the footage. So if you come up against something that sucks (bad review, sub-par presentation, weird interaction with colleague, etc), think about (but don’t dwell on—see above) what happened, and imagine what you’ll do differently next time.
