Women and power: how to act powerfully

A journalist I know wanted to spend Fridays working from home in order to be with her young son. I advised her to ask for that and to ask her supervisor to consider putting her forward to join the company’s board of directors. She was aghast: How could she ask for both? It was aggressive and unseemly; she insisted she was unqualified. In fact, she did ask for both. In doing so, she surprised herself and her boss. Once she began thinking of herself as worthy of a high position, it wasn’t a leap of faith to get her boss to believe the same about her that she now believed about herself.

He ended up granting both her requests. Neither has been disappointed by the outcome.

Conclusion
Remember, you may not always win or get what you want. The key is to remember that many strong women lose many battles, but that is not the same as losing the war. Tactics also take patience. Consider Gandhi’s advice:

First they ignore you
then they ridicule you
then they fight you
then you win.

It will take a while for your opponents to take you seriously enough to engage in your fight. But it will come.