Women are being inspired to take action against inequality in business and the workplace. To ensure that progress towards gender equality continues, it is important that working women enlist the help of individuals and organizations that can help them develop professionally. This goes beyond the role of the ‘mentor’, who is typically someone who has to put the interests of the business first. ‘Sponsors’ are role models that put you and your career at the top of their agenda and can help you achieve everything you want to accomplish.
Sponsorship
A sponsor is somebody who will advocate on your behalf in the workplace. While a traditional mentor will manage your development within the confines of a business, a sponsor can help you develop your career as a whole. The two are not interchangeable; a mentor could work with just about anyone who might happen to fill that role within the company, while your sponsor will only work with you.
Having someone in your corner at critical times, such as towards the end of a fixed-term contract or during a difficult financial period for the business, can be a huge advantage. A sponsor can get in the room where the big decisions are made and outline how you are the person to help take the business forward. What’s more, they can advise you on propositions and presentations you can make to show what you can do that others cannot.
In the US, sponsors such as the Female Founders Fund are helping create support networks to back more women than ever before. You may in the past have worked with a whole host of advisers for financial or occupational assistance or even pursued advice from alternative sources, such as talking to Clairvoyants about clairvoyant readings to help see what’s not in front of your eyes. Wherever you decide to go for advice, there is a whole range of options available to help you make pivotal decisions that impact on your career. Make sure that you seek out a sponsor or contact one of these networks to see if they might be interested in helping you in the future.
The importance of female empowerment
Empowering women to fill senior roles and earn as much as their male equivalents in the workplace could soon be additionally crucial for the world and local economy. Already, GNP (Gross National Product) per capita increased by half a percent in countries where young women receive the same education as men. Furthermore, adult women are important economic consumers. The economic contribution of women is a significant stimulant to the growth of the world economy and has a direct influence on the resultant benefits for all, men included.
There are overwhelming historical and current precedents that highlight the importance of empowered women. During and after the First and Second World Wars, women were relied upon to keep countries like the UK running while men were overseas fighting, enabling these economies to make startling recoveries in the aftermath. Today, women in war-torn countries like Yemen are finding themselves in a similar scenario, yet there are now multiple case studies of women who were previously suppressed picking up the mantle and excelling as individual traders. Where women work, economic progress often results.
Having a sponsor at work may only be a small piece in the greater economic scheme, but it sets an important example to be followed by others. Successful women are also ideally placed to become sponsors in their own right and encourage more widespread success, providing the service that they themselves benefitted from and encouraging others to do the same. The effect of more empowered working women will be a richer society, in terms of both equality and economy.