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Key Challenges in Women’s Communications
Key Challenges in Women’s communications
Written by Jan Daudi
The month of March 2022 marks “Women’s History Month”. It’s a time when global communications about female identity and positioning become ever more relevant.
With media trends and styles changing fashion faster than many of us can keep track of, having a clear idea of how women should “show up in their messaging” is a question that deserves clear answers.
As a communications coach helping women globally, my key points of advice can be summarized in the following 5 points.
These guidelines address the main challenges women face all over the world regardless of demographic differences. These pointers have evolved from hundreds of interviews and caching hours with women from refugee migrant communities to CEO’s and award-winning thought leaders.
When women own their stories they own their voice and place in the world by being able to position themselves actively rather than allowing external entities to define their place.
Every woman I have coached has expressed some form of dissatisfaction with areas of how they are perceived or treated in the different areas of their life.
Currently, women can’t control the labels given to them by individuals in their circle. Similarly, negative social references or economic injustice is still cause for concern for many women globally.
What we as women can do to reclaim our sense of agency is to have a protocol in place of how we navigate these challenges and craft appropriate responses.
Here are 5 top tips on how to do that.
1. When faced with language that you feel is inappropriate or offensive to yourself or other women, do not accept it as the norm. Pattern disrupting is a powerful tool to redress the balance of power. People who abuse their positions rely on silence to persist. When faced with a challenge they will often re-think their potential to control others with negativity.
2. If you are in a situation where physical contact is not appropriately maintained, have a habit of defining your boundaries as soon as they are crossed. Understand in advance what spaces are acceptable for your comfort and safety and do not leave it to chance that others will understand what your needs are. Thinking ahead can make the difference between a violation of your person taking place or not.
3. Create a culture where women speak openly about their challenges. So many women feel they are the only ones experiencing communication dynamics that they are not happy with. Fear of being labelled as “sensitive” or “difficult” often holds women back from asserting their true feelings about their unhappiness.
4. Many women have yet to actually establish their own clear set of values that define their identity and how they want to show up in the world. Give yourself time to develop this side of yourself. Do you enjoy jokes that put other people down or mock cultures? Are you a bystander in situations where people are not respected or are you an action taker to intervene in a crisis dynamic and advocate on behalf of others?
5. Do you perceive femininity as a weakness? Many women are faced with the dilemma of compromising their natural feminine energy and adopting hyper-masculine traits in order to be respected or taken seriously. Where do you stand on this issue? Did you know that the United Nations actively recruits women and positions them in the most critical negotiation dynamics as statistically, they have higher rates of success in reaching closure in a dispute? The nurturing female vibe is indeed a superpower!
In conclusion, even if you start using 1 or 2 of these communication shifts in your language habits, you will see a great change in, not only how people treat you, but how you feel about yourself in terms of confidence and self-respect. Of course aim to use all of these points and share all of these tips, let me know the results you get in my contact details at the end of the article.
Jan Daudi is a global citizen who has travelled extensively with her 5 children and husband.
Originally from London she now resides in the UAE where she runs her Female Communications
Coaching programs. She is a certified actress who had her own live women’s talk show based in the UK.
She graduated in the Psychological Sciences and went on to become certified in English Language Teaching leading her to empower migrant women enrolled in British government projects. She has extensive experience teaching C-suite leaders and diplomats in a Private Iranian College in London where she designed the entire English Syllabus for that Institution.
Her non-profit Business works saw her nurturing the Syrian refugee Children in her language learning collaboration with SmartWays Istanbul. She was featured in the top 100 entrepreneurial women making an Impact in Africa as she was the official communications sponsor of the first LeadHERship conference in Lago’s Nigeria in 2021.
Her bespoke Communications Coaching programs are for Elite ambitious women seeking to make a global impact and leave a positive legacy behind. They allow women to level up and polish their messaging to make it more magnetic and memorable.
