Communication is a critical workplace skill. It is a way to contribute value, demonstrate knowledge, influence outcomes, build relationships and build your leadership brand – unless you’re a woman. Then it’s not so straightforward.

Enter the Gender Penalty….

When men speak up, their voices are valued. When women speak up, their contributions are often challenged. This makes being seen and heard a constant battle for women in the workplace.

This dynamic means men are likely to speak up and women are likely to be shut down. Not only are women silenced in their speech and discounted in their contributions, they are accused of not ‘sounding like a leader’. When women communicate, their voices, styles and speech patterns are unconsciously compared to the male model – and often come up lacking in credibility and authority.

Why are women’s voices overlooked and undervalued? Why does society hear women differently when they speak? What can we do about it?

In the workplace, women are routinely interrupted, talked over, ignored and overlooked. Women’s ideas are discounted, and their competency is assumed to be lacking compared to men.

Contrary to the common perception that women talk more than men in the corporate setting, the reverse is true. In mixed groups, women speak less than men. This isn’t because they don’t have anything of value to say, it’s because they can’t get a word in edgeways. Men are given more space to talk, and they take up more space when they do talk.