Today only 1 manager out of 3 in the EU is a woman. According to Eurostat, only 28% are board members and 19% are senior executives[1]. Although on the increase, women leaders, and more particularly millennial women leaders, have to evolve in a working world that is essentially masculine and thought of as such. The Empowering project focuses on supporting women's career development while raising awareness among male managers, directors, and executives about deeply ingrained workplace stereotypes.

Women have stronger tendency than men to censor themselves. There are several reasons for this: firstly, built-in stereotypes and an inequal working environment that imposes a silent gender hierarchy.  Women are too often socialized to be good students, who work hard, seek the approval of the teacher/superior. Women are expected to be wise, to let others speak first, to ask permission. 

As a result, women underestimate their skills and effectiveness. They also restrict themselves in terms of real or supposed availability, which includes domestic and parental time, as well as social pressure to prioritize family life[2]. Leading women feel limited by their position: they don't exploit their full potential, they don't take full advantage of their position, they feel limited by their position in their private life. They don't feel legitimate.

Self-censorship not only limits professional ambitions, but also all aspects of professional life and progression within the company. All these limiting beliefs prevent women from gaining access to management or leadership positions.

Studies have also shown that sexism in the workplace is an aggravating factor in women's self-censorship[3]. In other words, the more the environment in which a woman evolves devalues her status or her person because of her gender, the more women report self-censorship. This makes it all the more important to train M-women for leadership in industry, which has historically been a male-dominated environment.

Women need to nurture their self-esteem.

To achieve this goal, women need to access training engaging actionable leadership skills. It's important for them to build a sense of legitimacy, recognize their achievements, and develop the courage to take risks without always aiming to please everyone. To this end, the Serious Game developed by the project Empowering M-women aims to properly access and develop skills, fostering women with self-confidence to progress in their careers.

The skills highlighted by the project have a business perspective with strategic management and financial analysis, funding methods, making decisions & problem solving. It promotes leadership skills such as leading others and managing change, while fostering personal effectiveness through improved communication and assertiveness. We train them to decode the different styles of behaviour that they and their subordinates adopt both in their work and in communication.

Cultivating awareness of women's skills and knowledge is crucial to address their under-representation in leadership and combat imposter syndrome. The project aims to help women develop a leadership style that transcends cultural stereotypes, enhancing decision-making, conflict management, and inspiration skills. Building self-esteem is key to career success and identifying necessary leadership skills for women across all sectors.

Ultimately, we should draw inspiration from Sheryl Sandberg, the former COO of Facebook/Meta, who envisioned a future of leadership defined by skills, not gender: "In the future, there will be no female leaders. There will only be leaders."

Get ready for the EMPOWERING project – a game changer for millennial women in European industry!

Follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/empoweringproject/about/ 

Visit our project webpage: https://empoweringproject.eu/ 

Article written by Eloïse DECLERK