Julie Blakey

Julie Blakey has been an entrepreneur since age 19. After success with her own business in the wedding industry, she became a coach and speaker. 

In this episode, Julie shares her perspective about the unique challenges of women in the workplace. We talk about how women can advocate for themselves and lean into their strengths. And we also discuss how men can support women in the workplace.

Check out her website here:

https://www.theblakeygroup.com

One of the things that came up in our conversation was the concept of the “Narrow band of acceptable behavior” and I wanted to elaborate just a bit more. This concept was introduced by A. M. Morrison et al. in Breaking the Glass Ceiling. It essentially refers to the possibility of a bias between what we consider as traditionally accepted masculine/feminine behavior, and what we observe in leadership; however, this concept is not limited to women in leadership. When we see anyone in a leadership role and they do not fit into what we believe is the stereotypical/prototypical leader role, we naturally give them less wiggle room to make mistakes. For example, when it comes to leadership, we often think of leaders as strong and decisive. If an individual believes that men are more strong and decisive, yet they see a woman leader acting this way, she will already be walking a tightrope when it comes to interacting with that particular individual.