How Can Women Overcome Systemic Challenges and Ensure Success?

Most of us are well aware that women face bigger hurdles in their path to career success. From discriminatory hiring practices to the gender wage gap to that glass ceiling in our way, there are systemic challenges blocking our way. How can women overcome these barriers, both individually and as a whole? For our new podcast, we spoke with our feminist ally, David Shar, whose mission is to foster greater diversity and inclusion and prevent burnout.

Watch our podcast with David Shar to hear how women can vanquish systemic challenges in the workplace:

David Shar is an organizational psychology consultant, keynote speaker, trainer, and researcher specializing in building meaningful work while preventing burnout. He helps businesses with their leadership and culture – a large part of which regards diversity and inclusion.

To kick off our discussion, David outlines some of the systemic challenges that women face in the workplace today. Despite all the progress we’ve made in the past century, women still face more hurdles when it comes to getting hired, and even after they’ve secured a job, tend to earn less than their male counterparts and receive fewer promotions.

How do diversity and inclusion play a role in these challenges? Although D&I has become popular concept in recent years, David explains how they’re actually distinct from each other. Find out what the important differences are in our podcast.

So why do we continue to see a gender wage gap, despite growing awareness and our recent efforts to achieve pay equality? What can we all do differently to fix this discrepancy? It’s been a long battle so far, but David shares his ideas on how to finally see pay equity prevail.

How Women Can Rise Up

Indeed, throughout this conversation, we’ve mentioned the changes we’ve seen over the last several decades. But how are things continuing to change for the better here and now? Moreover, what can we do to stay on this path forward, or even accelerate it? As the world evolves, so too must our specific aims and tactics for achieving results. David offers his ideas for how things will shift in the coming years.

On an individual level, there are also things female employees can do to ensure their success in the workplace. But how much power do any of us have over our own careers, despite the many challenges we’ve discussed? How does impostor syndrome play into all of this? Women certainly face unfair hurdles in their careers, but we can each wield some power, too, both within those confines and to break the confines altogether.

Finally, let’s take a moment to look toward the future. How do you envision workplaces should look as we move forward? What is our path toward this future? What are our obstacles? David, Amanda, and Lynn share their ideas on the podcast, but we’d love to hear your ideas, too. Share your comments below!

Listen to our podcast with David Shar below to hear more about how women can break through the systemic challenges they face:

To learn more about David Shar, be sure to visit his company IlluminatePMC’s official website here. David would also love to connect with you on LinkedIn and engage in mutually elucidating dialogues.

If you experience impostor syndrome, you can enroll in our course, “How to Overcome Impostor Syndrome in 7 Easy Habits.”