“This is such a Girls’ Team”
I was at a conference the other day with my coworkers to learn more about the chronic illness community in Greenwich, CT. We were very much so the only team with an all female staff. This has never particularly bothered me, as an alum of the first public all girls’ school in the state of Texas and a CWEL Scholar here at Babson, I have always been used to being surrounded by strong, powerful women who were driven and dedicated to their work.
This was the first time I felt out of place. In the exhibit halls filled with traveling salesman of medical device and pharmaceutical companies, there we were a team of three young women setting up our booth to share our story with patients in the New England area.
We were approached by several patients and partners alike that were interested in our products, story, and mission – everyone wanted to know what Mighty Well was and how they could be involved in the journey. Despite being one of the only booths with all women, we integrated nicely in the conference, and after awhile the self-awareness due to my gender quickly fizzled.
My comfort was short lived. We began pitching to another group of interested partners later that day and soon realized that the questions we were being asked were directly related to the gender breakdown of the company. One partner even went, as far to say, “this is such a girls ‘team’ While we do operate day-to-day with an all female staff, we have help from a plethora of different people who all contribute in one way or another to the success of Mighty Well as a company. The statement made questioning our team’s vitality due to gender was completely uncalled for and caught me by surprise.
We are a girls team – we have small talk in the mornings over coffee, catch up on the latest gossip at lunch, tell each other if we have lipstick on our teeth at random times throughout the day. But we also create stellar inventory management systems, track the behavioral flow of customers on our website through the use of Google Analytics, devise digital strategy plans to pitch to potential investors. I’m proud to be able to work in an environment where I know that when I raise a concern over a particular approach to work, it won’t be scoffed off as me being ‘emotional’ but rather taken seriously and dealt with. I’m proud to work at a girls team, where fun and work go hand in hand, and there’s always a supportive team that has my back.