How To Be the Only Woman in the Office

By LEAH EICHLER via THE GLOBE AND MAIL
Feb. 15 2013

In my former life in the corporate world, I would spend the summer months freezing in my office. I would look wistfully out my window at women in summer dresses downing iced beverages while I tried to warm myself with hot coffee and sweaters. I even once contemplated a blanket. Several of my female employees kept heaters under their desks.

Then it dawned on me why I found myself in this predicament each summer – it’s to accommodate all those men in suits. While women can wear a variety of light and loose fitting clothing options and still come across as professional, men aren’t as lucky. So the environment, literally, adapted to meet their needs.

Although this a relatively minor example, the truth is, in many ways it’s still a man’s world. A recent study by the University of California’s Davis Graduate School of Management came to this conclusion after examining the presence of women at the top of the 400 largest publicly held companies in California, representing nearly $3-trillion (U.S.) in shareholder value. Of these companies, women held fewer than one in 10 of the highest-paid executive roles and board seats and there has been no significant progress in the previous eight years, the study found.

Rather than rail against this, I’ve decided to approach this from different stance, and seek out the winning advice from women who thrive in male-dominated workplaces.

For Sabrina Geremia, sector lead of integrated solutions at Google in Toronto, that skill came down to really understanding and focusing on what motivates her audience. “Early in my career, when I worked for a major cosmetics brand in Italy, part of my job was to present to the local sales force every year,” Ms. Geremia recalled.

“Sounds simple, however the 50-plus person sales force was comprised mostly of middle-aged Italian men and I was a green twentysomething who spoke their language with a Canadian accent – diverse from many angles,” she said.

So she went to the meetings armed with interesting consumer insights that could help the men sell their products. Those skills helped her when she moved to the technology field, which struggles to retain top female talent. Read full article>>