What I’m about to say may not be popular, but I’ll say it anyway. Are you a woman and distance yourself from other women in order to succeed, and pull the career ladder up after you? Then you might have queen bee syndrome. There are many women who support and help other women to succeed. My message is to those of you who have the power to even out gender differences, create opportunities and remove obstacles, but who don’t. To think that there is room for only one woman in the leadership role or in the boardroom is wrong. There is room for more people at the table, but then it is important that those already sitting there contribute to this. Women are still severely underrepresented in leadership roles, and our responsibility does not end when some of us reach the top rungs of the career ladder. We will of course focus on our personal career goals, but we are also part of the work to create equal opportunities for everyone. It is not just men’s responsibility alone. Shouting loudly for equality in parallel with keeping other women down is putting on a Janus face. In an interview with news, researcher May-Linda Magnussen stated that female leaders must show more solidarity. She pointed out that many female managers pull up the ladder after them when they get into a position. Women drop out of highlighting their female colleagues. Five years later, in the book “Helt sjef” (written by Signy Fardal and Line Uppard), there are references to interviews and studies which suggest that women pull up the ladder after themselves. Studies from the Harvard Business Review show that both women and men rate male job applicants as better than female job applicants. When leadership roles and boardrooms are strongly male-dominated, we may fall into the trap of competing against each other. Women have more opportunities now than before, so it is a shame if we waste these opportunities in the quest to get ahead of each other. One woman can accomplish a lot, but together we have greater impact. A few years ago, I had a job interview with a female recruiter. She had been tasked with finding someone who could fit into the company’s culture. She informed me that it was a male-dominated work environment and asked if I could tolerate a bit of male humor. Out of pure curiosity, I had to ask what male humor contained. I got the answer, “you know, things typically men joke about”. I replied that it depends on the content. The look on her face said it all, I didn’t fit in. I still don’t know what she meant by male humor, but my experience of the interview was that I was indirectly asked to adapt to a man’s world. The times I really sense hopelessness are when women are reduced to their looks by other women. Come on. Do we really have to defend the master’s degree and the CV we have in hand to avoid objectification? We have fought that battle for many years, against men. Let’s not expand it. The fact that we do not agree with everyone does not mean that we hold each other down. We need to be able to disagree and create good debates, but when we start talking each other down, we are moving in an unhealthy direction. For example, I can disagree with Erna Solberg’s politics without making her less worthy of respect. By building other women up, you don’t take the attention away from yourself. On the contrary, you show that you are supportive and inspiring and that you are confident enough in yourself to lift others up. If we all did that, we might achieve equality sooner. I conclude with a quote from an interview with Louise Kathrine Dedichen, who made Norwegian history when in 2008 she became the first woman at admiral level in Norway: “It’s about not pulling up the ladder for younger women. The fact that I have made my way up and forward is something I will use so that more people will have the same opportunities. A matter close to my heart is that women can be more generous when they talk about each other. Talk to each other. Nobody gets better themselves by talking others down. Remember that.”
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Women, leave the ladder standing – Speech
