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What Women Want in the Workplace
Society expects women to want certain things: a spouse, a home, or children. However, many women want something more: a career. Unfortunately, it still isn’t entirely easy for a woman to find a workplace that gives her everything she needs to feel satisfied and successful. Not all employers and jobs are female-friendly yet, which means finding those that are especially important for women who work.
Studies show that women require a lot from their employers, but only a few employers provide all the requirements women seek. So if you are looking for the right workplace to succeed, you need to first understand the qualities you most value at work and where you will be able to find them.

What Women Want at Work

According to a study by Net Impact, 60 percent of working women strongly believe that working for a socially and environmentally conscious employer is important, and 30 percent of women would accept a pay cut for the opportunity to do good. Comparatively, only 19 percent of men would do the same.
Furthermore, younger women, in particular, are concerned that their employers provide flexibility so that they might contribute positively to make an impact. There is a remarkable demand among millennials for company-wide community service options, including scheduled days in which employees can volunteer as a team to do more good. Though salary, benefits, and title aren’t unimportant to women, it seems that being a positive force in the world is beginning to be more influential in how women look for work.

Women Want to Be Respected

Despite the popular concept that respect is earned, thousands of proper and proficient women continue to be disrespected in their workplaces. Psychologists believe that this is largely due to girls’ upbringing, in which most are taught to be agreeable, passive, and compassionate in every situation. Rather than earning them respect, these behaviors tend to sabotage women in traditional workplace environments, where direct communication and competition are key.
Instead of forcing women to adopt typically masculine qualities to attain career success, workplaces should strive to encourage respect for individuals based on their performance, not their personalities. Most often, workplaces that already allow for this system of respect are in industries already female-saturated. As the Wall Street Journal suggests, other workplaces should alter their ways if they hope to hold onto valuable women workers.

3 Industries Striving To Give Women What They Want at Work

Not every workplace provides women with what they want. However, there are three industries where women are most likely to feel comfortable and capable of success:

1. Healthcare

More than half of the entire health care workforce is composed of women, which means most women can easily find allies in hospital halls and practice offices. Medical school isn’t the only avenue for success in this industry; women are particularly well-suited for positions in health care administration, which facilitates the improvement of community health and requires effective leadership for success.

2. Education

Women are more educated than ever ― in fact, women are more educated than men. Women comprise 70 percent of high school valedictorians and 60 percent of master’s degrees. What’s more, a vast majority of teachers are female, and amongst administration, more opportunities are arising for women leaders. That means women can positively influence the next generation.

3. Public Office

Admittedly, U.S. public office is not yet fully female-friendly: Fewer than 25 percent of state legislative offices are held by women, and only 20 percent of federal congressional seats contain female members. Yet, there is no denying that public offers nearly everything women want in a job ― impact, respect, authority ― which means women must reach out and take those elected positions for themselves.
Asking career girls what they want in a workplace will undoubtedly elicit hundreds of differing responses, and that is because women in the workplace are individuals with their own preferences and goals. Still, trends allow us to understand how most workplaces are failing to meet working women’s needs and where women are turning (or should turn) instead.

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