Top 5 Challenges Women Face in Business

P.J. O’Rourke once said that the reason why women are so successful in business is that the business world was created by men. Men are babies and women are generally good with children. Now, this female empathy and the ability to understand the other party may give them an incredible edge in a lot of business world interactions but there are a lot of challenges that these women have to overcome in order to get in a spot where they can exercise these advantages. In order to further explain this curious and even troublesome phenomenon, here are the top five challenges that women face in business.

1. Insecurity

If we’re being completely honest, the problem of insecurity isn’t exclusive to female entrepreneurs and leaders, however, it seems as if the presence of ambition in women, doesn’t meet nearly as much support as it does in men. This may only add some fuel to the fire and make your insecurity go rampant. Fortunately, as long as you surround yourself with positive and supportive people and keep working towards improving yourself, you really have nothing to worry about.

2.  Maintaining work-life balance

The next major problem that a lot of women face in the business world is the problem of maintaining a great work-life balance. You see, one of the things that presses them the most is the idea that they, for some reason, have to choose between a professional and personal life, while men can have them both. The truth is that, with the right partner and an incredible amount of willpower on your side, you can easily have them both. Finding the right babysitter or, even better, a suitable playgroup can also be of immense help. Just look at all these great female leaders and entrepreneurs who are also great moms and you’ll get all the reassurance that you need.

3.  Staying motivated

Another problem that’s quite hard to overcome is the one of motivation. Concepts like the wage gap and gender discrimination may hurt an individual on a personal level. After all, you’re working harder than the person that seems to advance faster than you and receives a superior salary. However, you need to learn how to look at these things from a different perspective. Due to the fact that your climb is somewhat harder, once you get there, the feat will appear much more impressive.

4.  Not receiving enough support from your peers

Ideally, we want to convince ourselves that because they’ve faced these same issues, this same adversity, women are ready and willing to have other women’s backs. Sadly, this is not always the case. First of all, you need to understand that this is not a rule, which is why it’s often referred to as – the queen bee myth. What you need to understand is that A) a lot of women are willing to help you out and B) even if they don’t provide direct assistance, just by being what they are, they’re paving the path that you have to thread upon.

5.  Surviving gossip

While this may seem as menial or trivial, it’s not. Why? Well, first of all, it can be incredibly demoralizing. Second, for a woman who is in charge of a workgroup or a department, a nasty rumor can quite easily undermine her authority. Lastly, such a thing easily finds a way to disrupt one’s personal life as well which, although unfair, tends to happen on a regular basis. Here, all you can do is act professionally and avoid fraternizing with coworkers and subordinates. Even then, it’s unlikely that these things will never, ever happen.

Conclusion

As you can see, being a female entrepreneur may seem like something a tad more challenging but it’s a challenge and adversity that builds character. In other words, by the time you get yourself in a scenario where mental endurance and skill determine who gets the job, you’ll have a far bigger arsenal than your counterpart that took an easier route.