Women physicians struggle to have their perspective heard in meetings. The female staffers in the White House shared their solution to that problem last week in The Washington Post.
The environment in the White House sounds so much like life for women in medicine!
- 24/7 days a week job with only so much time to make a difference in your career
- The senior female aids reported they felt subservient, even though the Administration desired diversity.
- Too often the women who are assertive and do have a point of view are considered bossy and difficult.
- Just as women don’t like to ask for more money, they don’t like to have to ask to be in the room. The men will make sure they are in the room.
The female White House senior staffers adopted a meeting strategy they called “amplification”. When a woman made a key point, other women would repeat it, giving credit to its author. This forced the men in the room to recognize the contribution — and denied them the chance to claim the idea as their own.
A huge number of women already support one another, and we get our voices heard faster when we do!
Want To Be In The Room? Watch the video here. (5:44)