The article I read today was A Simple Exercise Can Help Women Overcome Self-Doubt to Succeed. The article confirmed what I already know from experience, that women have a lot of self doubt in industries that are under-represented by females. When you don't see very many other girls around you succeeding, it can be hard to feel confident in yourself and your own abilities, and how you stack up to men. It is hard being one of the only girls in my major. The boys are very nice and polite and have never made me feel uncomfortable or ever done anything offensive, but at least to me there is always this invisible barrier from truly fitting in because, well, they are boys and I am not. I am not a tomboy either, I am very much a girl. Sometimes I feel like it's all in my head, and I am the only one limiting myself, and that very well may be true.
One new thing I learned is that if women make a list of their own personal core values, they tend to do better on exams to the point where it eliminates the gender gap. When we reflect on our personal values, we increase our level of self worth. It is easy to feel worthless when you are a minority, and that can greatly effect your performance.
I am now curious to see how I can apply this phenomena to my own life, and if by remembering my values it has any real effect on my personal and academic performance. I think I will write down a list of my values and what I want for my life and reference it accordingly.
Self Worth by Pixabay
Sarah, I am so glad you chose that article to read. I was really struck by that one also! Teaching is a woman-dominated by profession, but because I teach online, I often feel in a minority for that reason (there's still a lot of prejudice against online education). One of the reasons I like to blog is that it gives me that place to reflect on motivation and values. I hope you will get a boost from this approach in your work too! :-)
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