WomenConnect4Good Team Leader, Maggie Castrey met with a group of 13 smart amazing women in Sydney Australia on August 24. Organized by Karyne Ang, the SuperChicks MeetUp group has been meeting for years to provide networking, friendship and inspiration for smart amazing women in Sydney.
Go Australian Women!
Australian women voted 9 years before women in the US. They have achieved a smaller pay gap between men and women doing the same work. The percentage of women elected to parliament numbers greater than US women elected to Congress. Australia ranks 45th in the world verses the US rank of 77. Until recently the top five political offices in New South Wales were occupied by women. There is nothing in the US that compares to this achievement.
Male Domination Continues
For all of their successes, Australian women face many of the same problems in the workplace as women in the US do. They compete in male dominated industries, struggle with balancing home and work life, manage home-based businesses, and confront the problems of how to transition from one career to another. And they seek many of the same options to get their foot in the door:
- Volunteering
- Taking classes
- Working part time in a new field.
Women Verses Women in the Workplace
Although many agreed that Australia has a reputation for male chauvinism and that they had observed significant backlash from men, they seemed more distressed by the bitchiness and backbiting that many of them encounter from other women, often in the administrative pool. The group shared ideas on how to develop relationships with women above, below and equal to one’s own position. With the administrative pool, some Superchicks had great suggestions:
- Maintaining a professional demeanor with clear boundaries
- Offering to mentor and assist those who want to rise
- Asking for help from those who feel their expertise is not appreciated
- Enjoying girly talk about family, kids and recipes.
SuperChicks found mentoring and finding a mentor very important to career advancement. To find a mentor or sponsor, top professional performance is a must. This may attract attention from a higher-up who will work to put your name out and help you advance. It’s also possible to specifically ask for mentoring in a particular arena. In either case it’s important to manage one’s demands for time and attention in order not to become a burden on their time.
We also talked about ideas from our upcoming Soft IS the New Hard book and some of the workplace solutions the authors suggest. Helpful guidance came from Claire Damken-Brown’s idea, “The Power of One” to use when communicating with men: “One word. One sentence. One paragraph.” By keeping that in mind, women can avoid overloading men with information they do not want and are not ready to receive.
It was a wonderful, supportive and excited group. The SuperChicks talked for two hours and are planning another meet-up before Maggie leaves Australia.
Check out the Meetup website for more wonderful ideas about having your own meetup group. Similar to Iron Butterfly Circles, Take the Lead Women and Stiletto Networks in the US, the SuperChicks of Australia are a vibrant, exciting group with great ideas for helping one another address problems we all share in work, life and achieving success in both.