Allyship across generations

Beyond Leaning In

In this episode of BEYOND LEANING IN, Melanie and Carla talk about allyship between different generations of women in the workplace. As always, we listen to an excerpt from the book, in this scene we join a meeting where a group of interns is assigned different tasks but the male intern is given more rewarding and meaningful work than the women. Then Melanie has a conversation with Alexandra Jacobson the CEO and founder of Worked Up, a community of professional women seeking meaningful opportunities to grow their careers. Join this conversation on the opportunity gap and it’s compounding effects, and hear what younger generations entering the workforce think about gender bias.

Welcome to BEYOND LEANING IN, a podcast designed to inspire candid discussion about gender gaps in the workplace. All too often, the “real talk” about the challenges that professional women face happens behind closed doors. Author Melanie Ho is on a mission to change that through her new book, BEYOND LEANING IN. She is joined in this podcast by co-host Carla Hickman as the two longtime friends discuss the ideas and research that inform Melanie’s book. You will also be invited to listen and join the conversation with early readers, women and men across generations and a wide range of professions, as they reflect, discuss and debate the ideas in the book. Also, don’t forget to get a copy of BEYOND LEANING IN in any of its formats, now available on Amazon

Jump straight into:

(00:39) - Behind the writing: Spanning across multiple generations - “I definitely had in my head, as I was writing the book, all different kinds of readers across genders, generations, different kinds of industries, what did I want them to think?”

(03:29) - How the workspace looks for millennials and Gen Z’s - “If a woman in college reads this, even high school, this is a way for them to understand what they're going to be up against and be ready for it.”

(06:51) - Book Excerpt: The assignment meeting - “Cassandra knew the finance department's leadership team, they weren't people who consciously thought men should do the financial analysis work and women should plan the parties and help with slides. That was the problem though. The unintentional nature of these opportunity gaps made it even harder to root them out.”

(17:13) - Alexandra Jacobson on starting the Worked Up internship program - “I ended up interviewing over 200 women, and I kept hearing the same things that I experienced echoed by so many of these women’s crippling fear of failure, lack of confidence, internalization of gender bias experiences, and imposter syndrome.”

(21:16) - Gen Z and the opportunity gap - “Progress has been made in getting more women into senior leadership positions, but what's really affecting the talent pipeline happens way earlier than the glass ceiling. It happens at the first promotion to manager.”

(24:52) - Informal work culture, allyship and how it may affect women - “So many deals and decisions are primed, if not made, in out-of-office informal settings. Those informal settings are so critical for developing that trust and that bond.”

(30:12) External mentorship for Gen Z and their expectations for building their careers - “There is this huge level of uncertainty around what the future of work is going to look like and how to make a career plan when there is so much up in the air.”

(35:04) - A socially and politically inclined generation - “They're not waiting for the older generations to solve these problems for them, they're really taking matters into their own hands.

And I think that they're going to continue doing that in the workplace as well.”

(39:57) - Carla’s reactions from readers: What about intergenerational support and gender bias? - “Growing up in the late nineties, there was this feeling of ‘Finally women are having their day and calling attention to these issues.’ And I think for a lot of women of our generation, unlike generations before us, we grew up with higher expectations.”

Resources

Learn more about Alexandra’s organization Worked Up

Connect with Worked Up CEO & Founder Alexandra Jacobson through LinkedIn

Read the report Women in the Workplace 2020

Get the book Beyond Leaning In by Melanie Ho

Follow Melanie Ho on Instagram or Twitter

Follow Carla Hickman on Instagram or Twitter

Thanks for joining us today! Don’t forget to visit our website for more information, and feel free to reach out to contribute to these important discussions. This show has been produced by StudioPod Media.