What would you be if you had no fear?

Women in 2015 have to admit they are lucky. They don’t live in the world that their mothers or grandmothers lived in where career choices for women were limited. Most have grown up in a world where they have had basic human rights.

But, amazingly, some still don’t have these rights. And women are still not making it to the top of any profession anywhere in the world.

I would like to challenge every woman and ask: what would you be if you had no fear? To answer this, I will focus on the message from Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg’s award-winning book Lean In, which is a guide to her success.

Sit at the table

Sandberg focuses on, among others, three things women need to do to be successful. Number one is to sit at the table. Women sometimes sit at the side of the room.

The problem with this is that it shows what the research shows: women systematically underestimate their own abilities. Most importantly, men attribute their success to themselves, and women attribute it to other external factors. If you ask men why they did a good job, they’ll say:

If you ask women why they did a good job, what they’ll say is someone helped them, they got lucky or they worked really hard. Women need to remember that no-one gets to the corner office by sitting on the side (not at the table). No-one gets the promotion if they don’t think they deserve their success, or if they don’t even understand their own success.

If women get together…

The real story behind Flight Air India 206 as told by SWAN Member
Bhavana Raje Gadre :

Flight AI 206 had been due to take off at 11. 25pm on Thursday 4 Oct 2015 but when the passengers checked in for the two-hour flight to Male , Maldives they were told there were delays because of a technical snag. Passengers included empowered women heading to attend the Annual SWAN conference to be held at Male from 5- 7 Oct 2015 also a medical delegation headed for a medical camp at Male and many honeymooners from all over the globe.

Furious passengers stranded on this AI flight decided to take on the administration of AI to task. The Administrators reached the scene after the passengers refused to leave the Airport as they had checked out through immigration and demanded an alternative aircraft to Male.

Had it not been for the SWAN delegation from India, Nepal , Afghanistan and Bhutan and their persistence to be given their due in the form of an alternative aircraft for Male there would not have been given the alternative flight the same day. Putting all the pressure on the administration and having the Chairperson of Commission for Women, New Delhi Ms Lalita Kumarmangalam was a blessing in disguise.

A call from her to CMD Air India did bring the giant corporation Air India to its knees and agree to dispatch a flight at the earliest. A saga of empowered women. It did boost their confidence and they were all determined to make the voice of the unheard heard.

More than 100 travellers, including children, had already faced a long wait to board the delayed flight from Bangalore to Male were relieved to have reached safely to Male Airport.

They waited nearly seven hours before they boarded the plane and reached Male just before midnight. Lesson learnt: If women get together they can bring a change in the rotten systems of this world.

SAWN -Facebook

Research shows that success and likeability are positively correlated for men and negatively correlated for women. So, women need to remind themselves that they are fabulous. They need to believe in themselves and negotiate for themselves. They need to own their own success.

Heidi versus Howard

A famous Harvard Business School study highlights the challenges women face simply because they are women. A woman named Heidi Roizen worked for a company in Silicon Valley and used her contacts to become a very successful venture capitalist.

A case study was written about her success. In 2002, a professor at Columbia University gave the case study to two groups of students. In one version he had changed Heidi Roizen’s name to Howard Roizen. Changing ‘Heidi’ to ‘Howard’, it turned out, made a really big difference.

The responses from the students was instructive. The good news was that the students, both men and women, thought Heidi and Howard were equally competent.

The bad news was that everyone liked Howard. He was a great guy, the kind you would want to work for and spend the day fishing. When it came to Heidi they were less sure.

This is the complication. We live in a world in which daughters are told that to be successful they will have to sacrifice.

It is not the advice meted out to their brothers.Sandberg’s second idea is to make your partner a real partner.If a woman works full time and has a child and her partner is not a real partner, she will do twice the amount of work if she does all the housework and three times the amount if she does all the childcare than her partner does. She gets to do two or possibly three jobs, while her partner gets to do one. This is avoided only if your partner is a ‘real partner’.

Don’t lean back

Sandberg’s third message is: don’t leave before you leave. When woman are starting to lean back they do not look for a promotion or to take on a new project.

Women are focused on other needs and not their work far too early, and “leave” before they actually leave.In South Africa, a study published last year on the factors influencing career success in business showed that family responsibility and the lack of appropriate role models and mentors were the most prominent barriers to career success.

This generation won’t get to the point where women are at the top of any industry. But I’m hopeful that future generations can.

(Miemie Struwig is a Professor and Director of the School of Management Sciences, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, South Africa. A version of this article appeared in The Conversation AFRICA)