Could more team sports for girls early on encourage more women think that way?
I think the confidence you can pick up, but there’s research that indicates that girls play differently. Girls want to win, no doubt about it, but they focus more on playing fairly, rather than just winning at any cost. I think the real lesson here is confidence. When a man talks over you and you can’t make your point, what you should do is just confidently stick to the business case — just the facts, ma’am — rather than reacting emotionally. Q: What message did you hear most from men? A: The real message that I heard is, “Don’t you dare fit in. If women don’t change the culture, we never will.” The reality is we’re not going to change the way men think. But if you come to see the world of work through a different gender lens, then you’re less likely to take personally the behaviors that seem very alien. Hopefully, as more women move into positions of power, we’ll broaden the range of acceptable styles of management. The idea is that women can begin to change the traditional rules of
