Self-confidence and the role of women in society: learn more and help change the scenario!
Written by: Horiens - 10/03/2023
To celebrate the International Women’s Day, on the last 9th Horiens’ team promoted a live with psychologist Lais Vitoria-Regis, HR professional with extensive international experience, master in social and cultural psychology and expert in diversity, equity and inclusion.
The theme of the live – Self-confidence and the role of women in society – brought up the reflection about the factors that can undermine the confidence of women in their day to day work, generating stress and directly impacting aspects such as career management and quality of life.
Why do so many women question their own abilities?
With this question, Luanda de Oliveira Santos, member of Horiens and coordinator of the company’s Diversity and Inclusion Committee, opened the event, bringing to the center of the discussion the concept known as imposter syndrome or phenomenon, a condition that can affect anyone, but is very recurrent in minority groups.
The impostor phenomenon is nothing more than the difficulty to recognize successes and accomplishments for fear of being “unmasked” as a fraud. The individual builds an unfounded perception of himself, considering himself incompetent or insufficient.
“In the case of women in the workplace, we often observe behaviors such as being in a constant state of alertness, avoiding giving opinions, and even sabotaging one’s own success. The feeling of being an impostor generates an important loss of self-confidence and this, in turn, brings negative impacts to women’s lives, from stress to lack of career planning,” explains Lais.
But what triggers this situation, after all? It is necessary to understand that the feeling of being an imposter does not stem only from personal and personality issues, there is a social context involved, with relevant weight. “In our society, the place of success is historically assigned to men. Today there is still the stereotype that women are less capable than men, which ends up creating a social context that influences the impostor phenomenon,” Lais explains.
Learn more about the impostor phenomenon in this video indicated by Lais: www.youtube.com/watch?v=euY0zIpiXXc
The building of self-confidence
The first step to changing this scenario is to become aware of it and build self-confidence. Check out the tips shared during the live to move in that direction:
- Change your perspective
- Feed your positivity with tangible things
- Take the Risk of Being Yourself
- Know your context
- Embrace imperfection
- Breathe and collect evidence when you feel insecure
- Identify your strengths
- Remember positive feedbacks you have already received
- Celebrate your achievements
- Persist and develop self-knowledge
What have you done to promote a more inclusive environment in your daily life?
To promote more and more new perspectives, the diversity and inclusion agendas need everyone’s engagement. The commitment must be general, regardless of genders. “This is how cultural changes happen,” Lais points out. Learn what attitudes make the difference in this journey:
- Avoid acting under the influence of unconscious bias (unconscious biased thoughts)
- Make room for the diversity of people in the discussion of different agendas
- Build truly inclusive environments, where people can be themselves
- Promote affirmative actions to promote equal opportunities
- Participate in actions focused on diversity, equity and inclusion
- Be an ally: be willing to change, to listen attentively, to seek to know the issues, and to take actions that promote change
Fernanda was one of the winners of the quiz held during
the event and will be able to choose among 4 publications
that will start the Horiens Book Club:
‘The courage to be imperfect’, ‘I am Malala’, ‘Women who run with the wolves’ and ‘Extraordinary:
Women who revolutionized Brazil’.
A date to learn, reflect and move forward
Since 2021, Horiens has a Diversity and Inclusion Committee composed of members from several areas of the company who, together and through the interaction with the teams on a daily basis, bring ideas and collaborate for the promotion of a more plural and inclusive work environment.
“At Horiens, our culture encourages our employees to make a personal commitment to diversity, welcoming and respecting individual differences,” says Fernanda Antonelli, Director of People, Marketing and Communication at Horiens. “It is our role as a company to collaborate in a concrete way to change the scenario, so we open space to debate issues that impact not only our environment, but the society as a whole. With every action we take, we learn and come out stronger and more prepared to adopt new attitudes in our lives,” concludes Fernanda.
