Audrey Nelson PhD. is an international trainer, key-note speaker, consultant and author who works with organizations to increase their productivity and profitability through winning communication. strategies.

You can reach Audrey at audrey@audreynelson.com
or at 303.448.1800 O -  303-448-1801 F - 303.448.1802 C www.audreynelson.com

50/50 by 2020: A Global Call for Equal Representation of Women
Will Women's Relationship to Ambition Hold Them Back?

Nicola Sturgeon of the Scottish National Party (SNP) is the current First Minister of Scotland; the first female First Minister and the first female to lead any of the devolved UK administrations. Describing herself as a "working class girl from Ayrshire", she added: "I hope that my election as first minister does indeed help to open the gate to greater opportunity for all women. I hope that it sends a strong, positive message to girls and young women, indeed to all women, across our land - there should be no limit to your ambition for what you can achieve. If you are good enough and if you work hard enough, the sky is the limit and no glass ceiling should ever stop you from achieving your dreams." During my recent visit to Edinburgh to conduct A Women's Guide to Leadership, I gained some insight from the Scottish women attending ( a shout out to the women at Scottish Water). I was struck by how ambitious they were matched only by the goal of 50-50 by 2020 set by their First Minister; a call for boards in both public and private sector to have 50% female representation. Now, other countries are considering following the Scottish lead.

But will women's relationship to ambition hold them back. There has been a tradition of women feeling that being ambitious was not very feminine. Men were expected to be ambitious and women not so much.

Time magazine recently conducted a survey on how women really feel about ambition in themselves and in others. The survey found that women were just about as ambitious as men, and that “ambitious” doesn’t necessarily have the same negative connotations as, for example, “bossy” does. Ambition, a complex variable, revealed that having children and generational differences figured into the equation for women.

1. Men are slightly more likely to call themselves ambitious than women are, but not by much. 51% of men and 38% of women said they were “very” or “extremely” ambitious– while 23% of women and 16% of men called themselves “not so ambitious,” or denied being ambitious altogether. When asked how what they’d do if given a choice between a comfortable retirement, or the job of their dreams, women were split 50-50 on which they would prefer, but men were closer to 60-40, in favor of the job. (41% of men said they’d pick retirement, while 59% said the job of their dreams.)
2. Younger women are significantly more ambitious than older ones. 48% of women in their 20s said they were “very” or “extremely” ambitious, compared to only 26% of women over 60. Younger women are also less likely to say it’s okay to not be ambitious– almost 60% said it was “not so” acceptable or completely unacceptable to be unambitious, compared to 44% of women in their late 40s and 50s.
   
3. Despite their big dreams, millennial women are a lot less confident– 44% of respondents in their 20s cited “fear of failing” or “lack of confidence” as the major things preventing them from being more ambitious, compared to only 22% of women in their late 40s and 50s. Women who were older were much more likely to point to personal priorities as reasons for not being more ambitious.
   90% of women in their 20s said they felt “pride” or “empowerment” when publicly recognized for being ambitious (they were allowed to pick several adjectives), compared to only 62% of women in their late 40s and 50s. Twenty-eight percent of women in that age group picked “guilt,” “embarrassment” or “shame” as adjectives that accompanied ambition.
   
4. Women without children were more likely to feel guilty that they weren’t ambitious enough. Forty-two percent of women without children said they thought they had “somewhat” or “much” too little ambition, compared to 33% of mothers. They were also less tolerant of lack of ambition– 51% said
   
5. Women who were well into their careers were more likely to think of ambition as an unappealing quality, although, overall, the term seemed to be widely embraced by men and women of all ages. 90% of women in their 20s said they felt “pride” or “empowerment” when publicly recognized for being ambitious (they were allowed to pick several adjectives), compared to only 62% of women in their late 40s and 50s. Twenty-eight percent of women in that age group picked “guilt,” “embarrassment” or “shame” as adjectives that accompanied ambition.
   
6. Women without children were more likely to feel guilty that they weren’t ambitious enough. Forty-two percent of women without children said they thought they had “somewhat” or “much” too little ambition, compared to 33% of mothers. They were also less tolerant of lack of ambition– 51% said it wasn’t acceptable to not be ambitious, compared to 48% of moms.

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The Gender Communication Handbook –
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The Gender Communication Handbook is for anyone who works with the opposite sex. If you are a part of a management team, in HR, or develop corporate training, this book is a comprehensive guide filled with smart advice, extensive research, self-assessments, and compelling true-to-life case studies. More

Code Switching –
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Code Switching  is a hands-on tool for everyday use at the office. It is a practical resource with how-to steps to help businesswomen conquer the communication nuances between men and women in the workplace. This book explores the gender impact on business talk. - More

You Don’t Say – Navigating Nonverbal Communication Between the Sexes

You Don't Say is the first book to explore the misunderstandings that often arise between the sexes due to nonverbal communication — and to show readers how to say what they mean and get what they want. More than words, it's nonverbal cues that have the power to improve — or impair — our interactions with the opposite sex at home and in the workplace.