When women began to occupy positions of high responsibility from the 1970s, they came to power, mostly imitating male leadership. The greatest exponent is Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom between 1979 and 1990, who was known by the nickname "The Iron Lady." Actually, the recent movie starring Meryl Streep overly softens the character, which everyone was afraid of.
We live in a time when women fill the universities and get the best grades, and they are fully integrated into working life. But this is not enough to make the salary differences disappear or to prevent the quota of Directors and, let alone female Directors, from continuing to be very low compared to the number of men. It is time to break our "Glass Ceiling".
What is impeding Women's Leadership?
After a socio-cultural process of thousands of years in which women were called to serve the man and the family, it is not surprising that we still have many beliefs and barriers to overcome, related to our plots of power.
Women have always valued ourselves according to love, that is, who and how much they love us. Hence, our main problem is the fear of not feeling loved, which drives us to try to please men. This leaves us “out of the game” when it comes to social relations, traditionally masculine, which are ultimately power relations.
What is Maripili syndrome
In 2004, Carmen García Ribas coined the term "Maripili syndrome" to define the symptoms that women suffer due to our cultural and social burden:
- Fear of not pleasing Fear of not being loved Fear of not fulfilling stereotypes Fear of success Self-sabotage
All this leads us to the so-called "Glass Ceiling", which prevents us from continuing to progress in our professional career after a certain point.
How do we each mark our "Glass Ceiling"? Well it depends, some leaving their career to dedicate themselves to their children, others self-boycotting their career to dedicate themselves to "something less stressful", others manage to stop moving up… For each one it is different, but it happens to most of us, and the most serious, unconsciously. Although we do have a common denominator: chronic stress.
How to overcome Maripili syndrome
- The first thing is to be aware of the cultural burden that accompanies us and the Stress that it adds to the existing one at work, home, family… In reality it is not that we have less resistance to stress than our male colleagues, the problem is that we add extra stress to our work life. Understand that it has a solution. As soon as we become aware of things, we have the possibility to remedy them. In this case, understanding that "I am already loved by many people", I do not need to make an effort to be loved at work. Also take care of the fear of not complying with stereotypes, trying to "be yourself."
In the professional world, promotions are not related to everyone loving you. Relax in this sense and your Stress level will be reduced considerably and you will stop being afraid. We are strong women, perfectly capable of exercising Female Leadership and of surpassing our glass ceiling.
"Women have only one way to surpass men in merits: to be more of a woman every day." Angel Ganivet.
