Is it just me?

I’ve noticed something lately on LinkedIn and it reminds me of something a former colleague said to me years ago:

“We have been fighting the same issues since the ‘80s.” <— close enough to verbatim. 

She had been advocating for freedom from the double burden, the freedom of pay equity, the freedom from violence and more for 30 years. She seemed to feel the weight of it all in a crushing moment, that somehow all the work that had gone to shift toward freedom hadn't been worth it. 

I’ve noticed something lately on LinkedIn.

Women who have achieved positional success are sharing their stories. Stories about coming back to work with their babies, running marathons, taking the meetings while juggling all the things. It’s astounding they’ve achieved so much.

It’s the “You Can Have It All” narrative. 

While it seems emboldened, it’s a narrative that feeds into the same trope my colleague noticed years ago: women need to succeed at everything to be valued. What’s worse is that we tell this story to ourselves, we tell it to other women, and we tell it to girls. 

Maybe I’m only reading into this trend because I’m primed to see it. But I am seeing it, and I want people to feel fulfilled without breaking themselves.

I can’t tell you what success looks like to you, but I can tell you if it means pushing self care to some time when you have time, you may not have reached success. 

I love seeing people at their potential; I don’t love seeing people setting their bar as everyone else’s. We just don’t know what they’re facing.

If you are wondering what self-care has to do with communications, please know the answer is everything. 

Attitudes like “You Can Have It All" set tones and expectations in organizations. 

Attitudes like this affect workloads. 

Attitudes like this affect a person’s sense of self worth. 

Fundamentally, to understand communication, we have to understand the culture. Then, we can start to untie the knots. Sadly, these are knots women more frequently find themselves caught up in. 

Take good care, everyone.

 

 

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