In this excerpt from the Women Connected Summer Webinar Series, "When I Doubt Myself and other Women" you'll see the research that supports women bringing forward FEMININE QUALITIES!
2. “In fact, wherever I’ve worked in the world, I’ve consistently found that a
fundamental lack of belief in our own value, worth, and ability to achieve
consistently tempers female ambition and holds women back.”
--Margie Warrell, Author “Brave”
3. WHY DO WE WANT TO INCREASE SELF-CONFIDENCE?
• The eight-year study by Bleidorn and her co-researchers analyzed data from over 985,000 men and women across 48
countries, from Norway to New Zealand, Kuwait to South Korea, asking them to rate the phrase: “I see myself as
someone who has high self-esteem study found that across the board – regardless of culture or country, men have
higher self-esteem than women.”
• “In nearly all cultures, men have higher self-esteem. But the difference lies in the magnitude of the gap.” In industrialized
Western countries like the U.S. and Australia the gap is more pronounced than in non-Western, developing countries.
That is, the gap between how little women think of themselves compared to how highly men do grows in the more
developed, egalitarian, countries – the very ones one might expect it to be the least.
• So how does a lack of self-esteem, often simply referred to as “self-confidence” play out? Given confidence is defined
as our belief in our ability to succeed at a given task, a lack of it drives risk aversion and makes people less willing to
pursue new challenges.
• As pointed out in The Confidence Code by Katty Kay and Claire Shipman, it seems that an important piece of the puzzle
in bridging the gender gap is addressing the gender confidence gap. While having more confident women won’t
eliminate the unconscious bias or stop more self-assured outspoken women being called bossy or bitchy (where men
are simply labeled assertive). However, it will empower more women to call out bias when they see it, put themselves
forward and take more risks that men do.
4. • When all the data from the thirteen countries came back in, we could see that across age, gender, and culture, people around the world feel that
feminine traits correlate more strongly with making the world a better place.
• In a highly interconnected and interdependent economy, masculine traits like aggression and control (which are largely seen as “independent”) are
considered less effective than the feminine values of collaboration and sharing credit.
• When we explored the concept of morality, we expected to see many different pathways and definitions as defined by custom, religion, and culture.
Yet our statistical correlations show that across the world, morality is strongly associated with loyalty, reason, empathy, and selflessness— all feminine
traits.
• In every country, the survey respondents were most in agreement when it came to linking feminine traits and values to happiness. Again, many of the
same virtues, such as patience, loyalty, reason, and flexibility, underscored the emphasis on adapting to a new world. Here we see a shift away from a
focus on affluence, as new forms of currency— such as knowledge and influence— replace traditional materialistic status symbols driven by masculine
concepts of power and esteem.
• 65 percent of people around the world believe that more female leadership in government would prompt a rise in trust and fairness and a decline in
wars and scandal.
MORE RESEARCH – THE ATHENA DOCTRINE
Gerzema, John; D’Antonio, Michael. The Athena Doctrine: How Women (and the Men Who Think Like Them) Will Rule the Future. Wiley.
5. THE FEMININE QUALITIES CITED IN THE RESEARCH
The type of feminine leadership they described is not soft and squishy but wise and
quietly strong. Boiled down to a manageable number, the keys to success, as sixty-four
thousand respondents saw it, were:
• Connectedness— an ability to form and maintain human networks
• Humility— an approach to life that allows for listening, learning from others, and sharing credit
• Candor— a willingness to speak openly and honestly
• Patience— a recognition that some solutions emerge slowly
• Empathy— a sensitivity to others that promotes understanding
• Trustworthiness— a track record and strength of character that inspire confidence
• Openness— being receptive to all people and concepts
• Flexibility— the ability to change and adapt when circumstances require
• Vulnerability— the courage to be human and make mistakes
• Balance— a well-rounded sense of purpose
Gerzema, John; D’Antonio, Michael. The Athena Doctrine: How Women (and the Men Who Think Like Them) Will Rule the Future. Wiley.
6. Copyright 2016 Women Connected | All Rights Reserved
FEMININE AND MASCULINE QUALITIES IN LEADERSHIP
Gerzema, John; D’Antonio, Michael. The Athena Doctrine: How Women (and the Men Who Think Like Them) Will Rule the Future. Wiley.
7. Copyright 2016 Women Connected | All Rights Reserved
THE FEMININE QUALITIES CITED IN THE RESEARCH
Source: Gallup World Poll 2011. “Quality of Life: Thriving Index.” 2011. https:// worldview.gallup.com/ default.aspx; World
Bank. “GDP Per Capita PPP.” 2012. http:// data.worldbank.org/ indicator/ NY.GDP.PCAP.PP.KD
8. Copyright 2016 Women Connected | All Rights Reserved
CALL-TO-ACTION
When Brazil's president, Dilma Rousseff, opened the 2011 UN General
Assembly, she argued that the “feminine voice” is also the voice of democracy
and equality. Noting that her native Portuguese language considers the words
for courage, sincerity, life, and hope to be feminine, Rousseff predicted a
“century of women” that will bring peace and prosperity.
9. Learn more about the Women Connected Summer Series
http://womenconnected.net/courses/webinar-when-i-doubt-myself-and-other-women/
10. Terri Altschul
Certified Integral Coach, Facilitator, Consultant, Designer of Transformational
Experiences, Mentor, Wife, Mom, Continuous Learner and Founder of
Women Connected.net
Copyright 2016 Women Connected | All Rights Reserved
WomenConnected.net is an online destination dedicated to helping women break
through fear and female stereotypes so they can realize their best selves and make
profound change in the world.
Terri has been on her own journey of self-mastery for many years. She was a leader in
Learning & Leadership Development on Wall Street before transitioning into internal
consulting, and then founding her first company, Pathwork Coaching in 2011.
She integrates her own learnings with her formal trainings to provide you with creative,
out-of-the-box approaches to online learning and self discovery.
Our Women Connected Stand:
I stand for the unique feminine qualities and strengths of women.
Through Women Connected, we are teaching a paradigm for women that encourages
women to collaborate rather than compete, to trust rather than mistrust, to value each
other as much as they value being with a man and to honor and value themselves.
Contact me: Terri@womenconnected.net
We looked at the data once again to see if there was a difference in terms of economic development between countries whose citizens think in a feminine way and those whose citizens think in a more masculine way. We found that more developed and established countries are more neutral in their thinking, embracing more feminine values, whereas emerging economies are still more masculine in their orientation. Moreover, the countries with higher levels of feminine thinking and behavior also have higher per capita GDP and higher reported quality of life.