Becoming a Bossbabe Ultimate Ways to Scale and Smash the Glass Ceiling

By Sibley Hudson

If you've been told all your life that your purpose on earth is ONLY to have children, raise them, and be a loving wife, I'm here to tell you it's nonsense. Don't be ashamed if you dream of having an office with your name on the door!

Stop letting gender stereotypes and myths hold you back from becoming what you want to be—you can have it all. It's absolutely possible for you to have a family and be a real boss babe, and I am going to tell you how.

Female empowerment is my passion, and with years of experience coaching women who are new to the corporate world, as well as women who manage large companies, I know just what you need to do to overcome the obstacles you'll face in the workplace.

In this book, I will:

Shatter the myths that are holding you back.

Show you how to fast-track your career.

Teach you vital skills that will catapult you to the top.

Share with you six of my top tips for women who are entering the workplace for the first time.

Focus on negotiation and delegation—two of the top skills women think they can't carry out.

Help you change your mindset from being the "nice girl" to being a powerful top executive.

Let you know how you can pay it forward and make other women's climb to the top more trouble-free.

Help you see how your own gender bias is contributing to your fear of breaking through the glass ceiling!

Whether you're a woman only now starting her career or one who has been trying but failing to get promotion after promotion, this book is for you. Becoming a Real Boss Babe will give you a voice and light the way for you to become the leader you are meant to be.

Warn those around you to watch out for falling glass!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sibley Hudson
• Release date: Jul 8, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223411918

Sibley Hudson

Sibley Hudson, a graduate with an eCommerce-Behavioral Psychology Degree from the University of Phoenix (UOP), is a passionate proponent of workplace equity and fair compensation. By conducting thorough research into Human Resources policies and practices, Sibley has taken great strides toward eliminating gender disparities and providing equal opportunities for all. Sibley was inspired to pursue her mission of transparency and fairness when faced with the need to implement procedures that foster an environment in which every individual, regardless of gender, could thrive and be compensated according to their worth. Through "Attention: Why You Need Salary Transparency in Your Lifetime," Sibley offers individuals tools for negotiating fair salaries while working toward workplace equality.

Book preview

Introduction

Every ceiling, when reached, becomes a floor.

—Aldous Huxley

For years, women had to contort themselves to fit men’s expectations of what power is and how those who possess it should behave. We were forced to compete with men on their terms instead of embracing our innate strengths without apologizing for being women.

I want to say that all our corporate struggles are in the past, but we’re not quite there yet. The infamous glass ceiling is still holding many of us back from reaching our true potential. Unfortunately, this invisible barrier is not the only thing stopping us from comfortably sitting in the CEO’s chair. We’re also holding ourselves back.

It is as if we’ve bought into this idea that women are inferior and belong in the kitchen, not in the boardroom. This lack of self-esteem is no doubt impacting our career choices. Not only do we feel unworthy of climbing the ranks in business, we feel guilty too. The words working woman and ‘mother’ don’t usually go in one sentence without someone snickering at the concept. Consequently, we find it challenging to balance our work and home life.

There are various other self-imposed career blocks that I’ll help you overcome in this book. Once you realize that you’re stopping yourself from smashing through the glass ceiling because you’re holding on to stereotypes, there’s no way to go but up!

In this book, you will get the tools to uncover what you really want and find out how to set achievable goals to reach your corporate potential.

I want you to get over your frustration of not getting that job or promotion despite the fact that you’re more than qualified. I will share with you strategies to reinvent the glass ceiling and look like an absolute boss babe while you’re doing it!

You may be wondering why you should listen to my advice. Well, I’ve been where you are. I’ve tried to scale the career ladder only to be blocked by men—frequently less educated and very inexperienced compared to me. I have been overlooked by upper management and missed out on opportunities men have the luxury of taking for granted. All these let-downs pressed me to find a way to break through these boundaries. In my search, I discovered what is myth and what is fact when it comes to women’s struggle to advance in the corporate world. I learned that although women want to see their name on the door, they fear top-level jobs, and that stops them from taking necessary risks.

Sorry to say, women can’t play it safe if they want to be successful in the male-dominated business world. You will have to change your mindset, build your self-esteem, and work on your confidence to empower yourself to stand up and say, I deserve to be in charge.

In fact, science confirms that women excel in top positions. A 2015 study found that despite everything women face in the corporate world—discrimination, pay gap, etc.—they still make better managers than men (Gallup, 2015). One reason women outshine men is they don’t neglect the emotional aspects of managing a team—employee engagement, encouragement, and support are important to them and their subordinates. This should already be a good enough reason for companies to take women seriously, but sadly, it isn’t.

That being said, I’m not going to deny that some strides have been made; more women have recently risen to executive positions than in the last 20 years (Catalyst, 2019) . Companies are starting to notice the value women have, especially when it comes to leadership and ensuring employees’ job satisfaction. They’ve actually made an effort to work on gender diversity—undoubtedly a step in the right direction, but women are still underrepresented throughout.

The fact of the matter is, for every 100 men promoted to manager, only 72 women get the same privilege. This means more women get stuck in entry-level positions, which results in men taking up 62 percent of managerial positions, and only 38 percent of women holding such titles (Huang et al., 2019). With such a small amount of women taking up manager seats, the number of women at subsequent levels will be even less. This signifies that although the rate of promoting women to management positions has improved, it will never catch up to men since there are simply too few women to progress further.

So, although we may think the glass ceiling is starting to crack, there’s still much work to be done. Women will have to get hired as managers at the same rate as men, and only then will equality be a reality.

I would be amiss if I didn’t point out that women of color, those with disabilities, or of lesbian and bisexual orientation have an even worse experience. They usually have less support from their managers and, subsequently, have a reduced chance of advancement. No wonder why black women and those with disabilities are less likely to believe the most deserving person got the job. They also tend to generally be unhappy in the workplace due to the apparent unfairness. This goes to show that not all women have the same experience in the workplace, and each faces unique challenges.

Microaggression, which includes sexism and racism, can be as subtle as someone assuming you’re more junior than they are because you’re a woman, or it can be more obvious such as someone outright disrespecting you. The fact that it’s not always done intentionally shows how ingrained the belief that women, women of color, and those of the LGBTQ community are lesser is in the workplace.

I have worked with women from all races, creeds, and ability levels and listened to the stories and hardships they face in the corporate world. By coaching them, I could help them boost their self-esteem, realize their worth, and teach them to use their skills to advance in their work life. It has been my life’s passion to understand the gender gap in business and find ways to overcome it, and that is one of the reasons I decided to become a career and life coach.

This book condenses my experience as a woman in business and as a career coach into a guide for women who want to break through the glass ceiling. But it is more than a career guide; it is a manual to ease frustration and remove the stumbling blocks you’ve created in your mind that stop you from reaching your full potential. It is also about learning to navigate external obstacles women still face in the corporate world. I will share with you tips on how to fight gender stereotypes so that you can get the job you want with the salary you deserve! You will walk away knowing what you can bring to the boardroom table, and you won’t be afraid to share your expertise with anyone!

The bottom line is we as women have been doing our part. We’re earning more bachelor’s degrees than men, we’re asking for positions high up, and we’re fighting for the same pay rates as men. Society—or men—just needs to wake up to that fact. If you go for your dreams and work toward your goals, even if they are as ambitious as making it to the Forbes 400 list, you will be joining millions of other women who are slowly chipping away at the glass ceiling to shatter it once and for all.

I am glad I can help you on your way to that corner office!

Chapter 1: Myths Holding Women Back

If statistics are anything to go by, women are a force to be reckoned with in the corporate world, whether men like it or not. Women have clawed their way up the ranks, and at the end of 2019, 87 percent of businesses the world over had employed at least one woman as a manager. Furthermore, 29 percent of senior management—that is your CEOs—are women (Catalyst, 2019). Now, that may sound like a meager percentage, but it is the highest number yet.

I know you must be asking yourself if women across the globe are running billion-dollar companies, why are some still caught up in the stereotypes of previous generations? Well, it goes back to what I touched on in the introduction of this book; we’re doing it to ourselves by clinging to these myths.

In this chapter, I will debunk some of the long-held myths about women in the workplace.

Myth 1: The Gender Pay Gap Is a Thing of The Past

Unfortunately, there are some men’s rights activists who cling to the belief that the gender pay gap is just a myth feminists use to garner support. This is far from reality, and the disparity between males and females in the workplace is still alive and well. The Pay Gap Report found that women make $0.98 for every $1 men earn (Payscale, 2020). This equals, on average, an accumulative loss of $900,000 over a woman’s lifetime, which is interesting considering that the Equal Pay Act of 1963 should prevent such discrimination (U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, 2012).

Some American states are proactively trying to close this gap. California in 2017 enacted a law that prohibits employers from asking any job applicants about previous salaries; New York and Massachusetts passed laws that require employers to prove that they’re not discriminating based on sex, where in the past, employees had to take matters in their own hands. These are only a handful of states actively doing something to stop the discrimination, which clearly shows that the gender pay gap is not yet part of history as some think