Okay y’all, it’s time to get real on the blog today. I know that my blog and social channels usually flood your screen with fashion and beauty looks, tips, and promos—and while I am so unbelievably passionate about those topics, I’m ALSO passionate about getting real and deep into other *life* topics. I haven’t posted one of these in awhile, so let’s get to it!
The glass ceiling—I remember learning about this term back when I was in school, but didn’t understand or realize the extent of what it could possibly feel like to experience that. The term refers to an ‘intangible’ barrier within some sort of hierarchy—now this could be for women OR minorities. Most of y’all know that I work for Girlboss, which is all about empowering women to redefine their success on their own terms. I’m personally just so passionate about doing what I can to help others out on this topic!
I’ve spent the majority of my career in fashion and beauty, and actually have mostly worked on female-dominated teams (P.S. as cheesy as it sounds, I love working with mostly women – I feel empowered everyday by all the motivating girlbosses around me!). I honestly have never really struggled with ‘mansplaining’ or dealing with a glass ceiling at work in this sense. However, I will say that I have experienced it from the race standpoint. I’m of Chinese descent, and while I would love to believe that our world has progressed to a place without racist remarks, the truth is it still exists! In one of my first jobs out of college, I had coworkers (just to clarify here, they were the SWEETEST humans) who hadn’t been around many Asians before. They innocently asked me if I was going home for the holidays ‘back to China,’ then proceeded to tell me how they had friends from Japan. I laughed it off because I knew they did not have any malicious intentions behind these comments, but the fact is that comments like those truly do affect people and are never okay to make at work. From a sexism standpoint, I will say that a ton of my girlfriends have complained about this—how they don’t have any idea about what to do being surrounded by a ton of condescending men who call them ‘honey’ or ‘sweetie,’ and how they don’t have tools or resources to turn to. I advised them that it’s important to talk about it in the open (don’t feel ashamed!) to friends, family, whoever. It’s essential to find a trusted colleague, mentor, or manager at the company to be an advocate and help you break through. Furthermore, there are resources out there that are made for women to turn to for career inspiration and help (esp if there are any other barriers that need help getting through!). Introducing… Forté.
Forté is all about supporting women in their careers through its experiential programs & resources, MBA process + support, and workshops + job center access for all career stages. It’s a truly motivating organization, and I’m so proud to partner with them to showcase everything that they do for so many women, and maybe even some of my readers! Forté has absolutely FREE MEMBERSHIP – yes, y’all can join a strong community and amazing network of 100K+ other women who are committed to equality. Their ultimate initiative? #MoreWomenLeading
Check out more HERE.
A huge thanks to Forté for sponsoring this post. As always, all opinions are my own.
