Femininity, the quality or nature of the female sex (as described in most current dictionaries) carries with it an invisible burden for women. As women we are expected to act in accordance to the cultural and social norms that society has defined. I feel proud of being a woman, I enjoy expressing my femininity. I’m sweet and caring, small with a juvenile look in my face, always cheerful and I’m also confident, quick to action, authentic, transparent and very sincere and hence, I’ve often been told that I’m too aggressive. I’ve tried to balance my assertiveness and failed miserably, trying to fit into the norm of what is expected of me. Instead, when given this feedback, now I ask people whether they would still say I was too aggressive if I were a man. Why is it that speaking our mind, having clear goals and showing up with confidence is seen as aggressive in women? We are gentle, sweet, caring, empathetic, supportive and have to live up to the expectations of being great wives, moms, business women as well as running our households. All in all, we are doomed to become our own worst nightmares by having such high expectations of perfection in all of our roles. Where I have seen the biggest difficulty is in the silent every day experiences that none of us our aware of. In my 12 years of experience in big Pharma, I’m constantly witnessing how men get promoted as a basis of their future potential whereas women only access those roles if they have already proven the skills that they will be expected to have in their next opportunity. I have seen how the older generation of leaders that are higher in ranks and are typically men, mentor younger men that they socialize with thanks to a casual shared cigarette, a soccer game they’ve watched together, a golf tournament they’ve shared, or a tennis game they’ve attended... all of which are social activities women never get invited to. As one of only 8 women in an MBA class of 54 students, I see that less women invest in their futures. In the classroom we may have all been equal, but the truth is that it was harder for us girls in class to get invited to smaller social encounters where my classmates’ wives would be present. Men grouped together and got their wives to meet, for them, having a female classmate may have proven to be an uncomfortable situation. When we met in classmate activities, social or MBA related, their attitude changed, they were completely at ease and the relationships were smooth and open. More recently, as a Sales Executive leading a team of sales representatives when looking to hire a new member of my team, I was advised by some of my customers to hire a man as it would be less awkward for the customer to socialize with a male rep than with a female one, avoiding having to explain to curious sightseers why they were seen having lunch or coffee with a woman. The glass ceiling has even deeper roots, I’ve repeatedly seen smart, successful women refrain from speaking their mind at important meetings where their male counterparts loudly voice their opinions without hesitance. We’ve been taught to wait our turn or ask before speaking, and we do the same in asking for a raise. A lot has advanced in female diversity, and we haven’t even gotten to discuss unequal pay, but we must pay attention to these smaller details if we want to move even further. These situations clearly take place within the business setting, I believe they can only be dealt with at the home. Men and women that grow up with successful working moms or men that marry successful working women portray less of these hindrances. As I work to broaden my profile and build opportunities where I can bring in all my value, I have exposed myself to a variety of settings. Recenty, I attended a Women Techmakers conference that Google organizes to provide visibility to women and expose role models to younger generations, I was encouraged by the idea but slightly disheartened by the execution. While the topics and the contents were exciting and well prepared, it was in how the women spoke on stage that you could sense women’s discomfort. Body language screams out as speaker after speaker they all remained in a small corner of the stage, most of them behind the podium not confident to own the space they had around them. In my years of marketing experience I’ve organized several Scientific Conferences myself, my biggest challenge has always been finding female speakers willing to participate. The ratio of women to male physicians is about 8 to 2, and even with those numbers not enough women invest in their careers as investigators, or influencers and much less do as thought leaders, so its a challenge to represent equal gender in faculty and we tend to aim to simply have a representation of at least some female presence. Unequal pay is definitely one way to approach diversity but lets be more ambitious and approach these other silent prejudices that continue to slow down women’s progression into leadership roles. Lets redefine femininity to include confidence and assertiveness in our new social norms. Enjoy a breath of fresh air… Spanish by birth, Dutch by adoption and American by chance, my multicultural background turns me into an agile and adaptable professional. As a senior marketing and sales executive I have a proven track-record of successfully launching products in the challenging pharmaceutical sector in Europe. I’m a customer oriented and sales executive. Leader of pan-European marketing projects, trilingual professional and MBA graduate. Set on a goal, I’m a visionary that finds the most effective path to achieve it. Quick decision maker and a strategic planner that drives business results by putting comprehensive business strategy into place and driving excellence in the operational execution. My goal is to develop my professional career staying true to my values (cultural diversity, integrity and feeling part of something bigger) and committing to endorse my determination contributing to the bottom line.