On November 4 2019 Professor Dawn Bazely was a guest on the podcast “Podcast or Perish”. This episode discussed barriers women face in STEM, and how they are under represented or disregarded on wikipedia and other platforms. Half way through the episode (37:44) she mentions that women need to be better at becoming rampant self promoters. She mentions that many of the women academics and graduate students she works with tend to undervalue or set really high expectation for themselves and tend to underestimate their potential and their skills when applying for jobs etc. I would definitely agree with this piece of advice because as cliche as this might sound, no one is going to push or advocate more for you in place of themselves. So knowing your capabilities and being able to speak up and out is very important.
In relation to women, in recent years this theory of the “confidence gap” has emerged. This theory suggests that women feel less confident than men in their own work and abilities. In the corporate world that lifts up self promoters, the modest women avoiding self promotion results in them being passed over for projects. Although this theory seems be applicable to the experiences of some women, this issue is more complex. Research shows that women in fact feel just as confident in their leadership skills and abilities as their male peers. It’s more that women struggle to find the balance between modesty and confidence. If you’re too modest you get looked over but if you’re too confident you get faced with the “backlash effect” and are perceived as less likeable and hireable. Here is the article about women’s confidence in the workplace for more information (https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2018/09/women-workplace-confidence-gap/570772/). With all that said I think being able to read a room and people is very important in addition to rampant self promotion because this way you can be able to see how your actions are perceived by others in order approach ways of self promotion that won’t seem so threatening.
Applied Plant Ecology Winter 2020 