CM 219: Susannah Baldwin on Women’s Voices at Work

Is our cultural conditioning holding women back at work?

We don’t often notice how we’re culturally conditioned. Like when we walk into a store and the girls’ toys are pink and boys’ toys are blue. It’s a gender norm we may not question. 

Now you might ask, in the big scheme of things, how much do kids’ toy colors really matter? But what about actual behaviors, like when girls are playing together and they’re told to be quiet and play nice?

Years later, these kinds of gender norms show up in the workplace. For example, men can be loud and openly ambitious, while women need to be warm and likeable. Yet, it’s these kinds of behaviors that can hold women back.

The kind of body language and spoken language that got women the job may not get them promoted. 

I invited Susannah Baldwin on the show because she’s spent decades studying the causes and effects of women’s cultural conditioning and its impact on their advancement in the workplace. In her book, Women, Language, and Power: Giving Voice to Our Ambition, she shines a light on how dominant a force this conditioning is. She also offers thoughtful guidance on how to overcome it.

Whether you’re looking to understand the challenges for yourself or your team, you’ll find this book to be an incredible resource.

Episode Links

What Likeability Really Means in the Workplace

Bem Sex-Role Inventory

Let's Talk: Make Effective Feedback Your Superpower by Therese Huston

Self-Promotion as a Risk Factor for Women: The Costs and Benefits of Counterstereotypical Impression Management

Karin Martin gender researcher

Persuasiveness of Confidence Expressed via Language and Body Language

Anna Fels

Executive Presence by Sylvia Ann Hewlett

Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu

The Team

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