The Expat’s Survival Guide
Part 3
Women and International Jobs: Don't
Let Gender Get in the Way
By Leslie A. Strazzullo
10/2008
with resources updated 7/2023 by Transitions Abroad
Unless you live in Norway and are feeling
the trickle-down effects of a mandatory quota initiated
in 2002 stating that boards of large public companies must
appoint women to 40 percent of their non-executive
board director posts, then you along with many other
professional women are feeling the effects of a corporate
life with few female executive role models to turn to for
guidance and support. While Norway is making history,
for many women it is still quite evident that men outnumber
women in the ranks of senior management.
With fewer women still calling the shots,
what does this mean for you? Might you be viewed or
treated differently knowing that you are a woman? Can
gender put you on the sidelines? If you are not golfing
on the weekends with your boss, getting together after work
to grab a beer, or watching the finals of some sporting
event with the guys, you may be missing out on prime opportunities
to bond with senior management and learn about new opportunities.
Or if you are already heading abroad; will you feel the
pangs of the gender gap where you are going? While
gender shouldn’t matter, it usually does.
What will you do if you run off to an
expat assignment where the entire senior management is male?
What does this mean for you? On top of fitting in on
the job, how will your social life be impacted? If
you are single and heading off to a country where family
and roots are more important than climbing the corporate
ladder, you might be perceived as strange. Why would a young
woman leave her family and friends behind for an international
work experience? Be prepared for an onslaught of questions.
In most cases, women will have a more
difficult transition from both a professional and personal
perspective. As always, you will just have to be that
much tougher and confident in your abilities. However,
this does not mean that you should throw in the towel...just
know that it will not be easy. Be ready for a more rigorous
examination process and a closer look at you and your ability
to perform.
My philosophy is that you only live
once and if working abroad is what you want then go for
it! Just know that you will be bucking what society
expects of you. Family versus career, both are certainly
possible and why shouldn’t they be? My point
is that you might be perceived differently than other women
if you choose first to follow your career and then start
a family later.
Life as a Female International Professional
Below I have identified some issues
to think about as you consider life abroad as a female professional.
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Get ready for an uphill
journey — you will confront many of the issues
you experience at home and certainly a few more.Where
is it that you want to go…somewhere in Europe,
South America or the Far East? As we are talking
about living abroad and not a vacation on the Amalfi
Coast of Italy, you must understand the terrain…the
working and social terrain that is. Are you
going to Heaven or Hell with respect to putting
your career first? What is the culture and
how are women perceived in the job market? Whether
you sink or swim will be a result of your ability
not only to succeed in your job but also your ability
to manage your company’s view or public sentiment
of a woman’s role in the workplace. Add
to this the need to create a life outside the office
and things can get complicated.
Survival tip: While
success or failure will depend largely on you, there
are certainly means by which you can obtain insight
into what your life overseas will be like. Roll
up your sleeves and do your research. Start with
the World
Economic Forum which publishes annually a Gender
Gap Index measuring the gap between women and
men in the areas of economic participation and opportunity,
educational attainment, political empowerment, and
health and survival within 145+ countries.
Then
there are several resources that cover cultural norms
in the workplace. In an earlier
article on expatriate life, I referred to Geert
Hofstede. Professor Hofstede conducted one
of the most comprehensive studies of how values affect
workplace cultures. His research is based on
the analysis of IBM employees from more than 70 countries. Hofstede
uses six cultural dimensions to compare workplace
behavior. Using Hofstede’s model one can compare
the cultural
norms of two different countries. For example,
you can compare the Masculinity Index, the distribution
of roles between genders , for your home and host country.
However, the best way to learn
involves speaking directly to women who are living
the experience. How do you find them? Go to your
employer and/or your own professional and personal
networks. So who are these women? They are
family, friends, former classmates or alumni from
your university or post-graduate studies, current
and past colleagues, and professional associates. Put
together a list of questions relating to living and
working in your target country and then try to speak
to as many women as possible. You’ll want
to learn in advance if you are joining the ranks of
a highly masculine company or society. If so,
how are foreign women coping and are you up for the
challenge? In most places there are associations
or groups that cater to women abroad. One group is the PWN Global
Professional Women’s Network which has local
chapters in several European countries.
In the end, be prepared for
some hiccups along the way. When I first relocated
to Italy my boss, a woman, soon left the company for
personal reasons. I then became the ward of a
senior executive, male engineer by function, and thus
no longer had access to the guidance or protection
of a native, senior-level female. The engineering/male-oriented
culture of both the country and culture became even
more evident. To survive, I had to do my best
to keep things impersonal and use my experience and
work ethic as tools to move forward and get the job
done.
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Know thyself. Socrates enlightened
us with this brief but meaningful quote. When
you look at yourself in the mirror, who do you see? It
is not always so easy to assess yourself. However,
evaluating your strengths and weaknesses will help
you identify your limitations. Knowing your challenges
in advance will allow you to take proactive actions
to overcome them. For example, if you are an “A” type
moving to a country where public transportation is
not reliable, strikes are frequent and the attitude
is more relaxed in the office; can you survive? Knowing
that family and friends are far away, can you cope
if you are making the transition abroad alone? Are
you capable of re-inventing yourself and making friends
in a new city? Can you take a holiday and travel
alone? These are just a few of the questions that
you will have to ask yourself. On the other hand,
if you are relocating with a spouse and do not have
a job. What will you do? Chances are, it
may be difficult from a legal standpoint for a local
company to hire you. Can you deal with an uphill
battle of finding yourself professionally? Can
you turn your past experiences into something entrepreneurial?
Survival tip: Unless you have a crystal
ball, there is no way of knowing what will be the
outcome of your experience abroad. The point
is that you should not approach this experience wearing
rose-colored eyeglasses. To begin, put together
a list of your strengths and weaknesses and then ask
a select group of people that know you well enough
to review the list for comments or better yet ask
them to make their own list of your strengths and
weaknesses. Next, identify the trends in your
strength and weaknesses. After this exercise
you should have a pretty good picture of yourself. Now
that you have your list, cross reference it against
what you learned from the interviews above. For
example, if you are a shy and timid person moving
to a close-knit society that does not easily accept
strangers you know that you will have to work extra
hard to fit in.
I can tell you as a single woman, I get every type
of question about almost every aspect of my life — which
at times can make even me second-guess myself. On
top of that, I have been challenged with starting
over…again. A new city means a new everything,
and let’s face it as we get older it is not
always so easy. Long gone are the days of university
when you were thrown together with 1,000-plus coeds
of the same age with a common link of studies, hobbies,
partying, etc. Whether it is traveling alone
or creating a social life, you have to get out there
and just do it, even when you can create 1,000 excuses
of why you can’t or don’t want to.
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How fast is your clock
ticking? If your short-term goal
is to settle down, taking an overseas assignment
might not be the right path for you. Think
of what it is like to start a new job. There
are all the anxieties of making a good first impression. Now
add to this adjusting to a new city, culture, and
language and a relationship just might take a backseat
to establishing yourself, fitting in and succeeding
on the job. Will you be satisfied with your choice
to pursue a career abroad while many of your friends
might be settling down? Will you be wondering
if the grass is greener on the other side?
Survival tip: The
only advice I can give you on this topic is to be
honest with yourself and do what’s right for
you. We all move at different speeds and have
different expectations in life. Follow what is
best for you and not your sister, brother or best
friend.
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Enjoy yourself. While
it is easy to get caught up in proving yourself on
the job, don’t neglect your social life. This
can be a tough balancing act. On one hand, you
have been invited to a foreign country in a work capacity
and naturally your initial objective is to prove yourself
in the office. On the other hand, if you do not have
anything going on outside the office, life can get
heavy.
Survival tip: You
need to work on your social life from the beginning. Check
out clubs for women or newcomers. Then you must
go to the meetings, happy hours, etc. faithfully (more
than once) even if at first it feels awkward and strange. If
you feel uncomfortable in these types of situations,
get over it. You need to make an effort to meet
new people otherwise you will be very lonely and missing
out on what your host country has to offer you. For
women, creating a social circle can be more difficult
depending on where you are located. In some cultures
it is unusual for a woman to go out in the evening
alone whether it be a bar or a restaurant. This
is why it is imperative to work on your social life
from the beginning.
At the end of the day if you
are not enjoying yourself than why bother. Let
me tell you it is very easy to get complacent and
caught up in a job-focused life. However, this
is huge mistake. In most cases, my own included,
it is generally an excuse that is based on habit,
pride or fear that prevents you from saying what the
hell and taking the initiative. Fortunately enough
for me, I got over this hurdle.
As a woman working abroad, I have received
all kinds of questions regarding age, civil status, settling
down, being far from home, etc. In most cases, it is
a genuine inquisitiveness to better understand another person. Of
course, there have been other instances where the intent
was to deliberately embarrass or hurt me. Luckily,
these were rare occasions. The point is, keep your
emotions under control and never take it personally. Sometimes
what is acceptable in one culture is not in another, and
vice versa. Don’t get me wrong, culture should
not be an excuse to be ignorant, rude or insulting, just
know that not everyone you encounter will be as culturally
open as you are. Lastly and most importantly, what
matters most and probably the reason you received an offer
to work abroad, in the first place, is your experience. If
you have the needed background, education, and work history
then that’s what’s important on the job — not
your gender.
If the opportunity to work abroad comes
your way and fits into your own plans, then by all means,
take it. The experience will set you apart from the
rest but more importantly will broaden your horizons both
professionally and personally. The growth and learning
that you will achieve go way beyond what you can read in
a book or learn in a classroom.
References
1) Roberts,
Yvonne. You’re
fired!
2) World
Economic Forum. The Gender Gap Index assesses
countries on how well they are dividing their
resources and opportunities among their male
and female populations, regardless of the overall
levels of these resources and opportunities.
By providing a comprehensible framework for
assessing and comparing global gender gaps and
by revealing those countries that are role models
in dividing these resources equitably between
women and men, serves as a catalyst for increased
awareness as well as greater exchange between
policymakers.
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Leslie Strazzullo is
a marketing professional working in Italy for an
American multinational. You can learn more about Leslie on
LinkedIn.
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