Ivy Exec Insights
Season 1
Drinking From a Different Well: How Women’s Stories Change What Power Means in Action
by Ivy Exec
What does power mean to you? Taking charge or taking care? If you are female (or support “feminine” values) research suggests you want the power to do both. The problem is that some jobs only reward competitive thinkers who define power as the ability to dominate (“own the market,” “kill the competition”). These kinds of jobs leave collaborative thinkers thirsty for the joy and benefits of care-taking. In highly competitive systems, providing care, nurturing the weak, or passing up short term wins for long term gains is unrewarded or even punished as a lost opportunity to dominate. These restrictions generate enough “moral distress” that we leave or fail to apply. When accepting a hyper-competitive job feels like you have sold your soul, no salary can compensate us enough to stay.
Two professionals. Same job title. Same industry. Same region. And yet: one person is making 30-40% more than the other. One person will get the lion’s share of promotion opportunities. One person will be respected along higher and higher strategic levels- while the other will be treated as little more than a glorified worker bee. This is the executive underclass. It is going on across all industries, and if you’re unfamiliar with it… you are very likely one of its victims.