Starting in1987, the United States deemed March Women’s History Month—a time to celebrate women’s contributions to history, culture, and society. While every day is a day where we should highlight women’s achievements, March gives us an excuse to shout even louder, reflect on how far we’ve come, and focus on what we need to do to keep the momentum going. 

Where Are the Female Leaders?

I’ve worked in the tech space for nearly my entire career. Spoiler alert: it’s male-dominated. Seconds before sitting down to write this, I stumbled across this Twitter thread. On International Women’s Day, in the middle of Women’s History Month, a tech company posted an image celebrating their all-male, mostly white team. It’s par for the course, even in 2022.

In my experience working in the tech industry, if you find women in leadership positions, you’ll most often find them in marketing and HR. Here’s the problem: it’s hard to find them anywhere else. I’ve never worked for a female CEO, CTO, or COO. Not only that, but I’ve never interviewed with a single company run by a woman. I used to think this was due to the fact that I work in tech, but that’s not what the data tells us. There are more CEOs of large companies named John than female CEOs total. 

The Language of Success Has Evolved 

The “Lean In” phenomenon, started by Sheryl Sandberg’s book of the same title, is now painfully outdated—just ask Michelle Obama.  And so is the “Nasty Gal” trend of using words like “girl boss” and “lady boss,” to describe powerful women. These methods and the language that accompanies those ideas blame individuals for their so-called failures if they don’t aggressively climb the corporate ladder leaving victims in their wake. But you can’t “lean in” and be a “lady boss” if you are locked out of the room. Plus, why say “boss lady” and not just “boss?” We don’t refer to a man in the c-suite as a “man boss.” The company or society needs to change, not the individual. The language we use is a great place to start. 

While a lack of women in leadership positions highlights a prominent issue in our society, I also want to point out that success isn’t always found in the c-suite. Career success means something different for everyone. I am surrounded by women in my life who have chosen to forego climbing the corporate ladder and who remain happy, productive, highly skilled individual contributors. Some value flexibility, autonomy, or community impact over power and money. Some want to challenge themselves in highly creative endeavors, while others need something they can do on autopilot to balance out the high demands in their daily lives.

Celebrating women means honoring our ability to choose and change our minds about what success means to us. To continue to grow, have voices, take up space, and succeed, we must always consider the diversity of women’s thoughts, opinions, and dreams. Identifying as women doesn’t make us all the same. It makes us extremely powerful when we combine forces and hold each other up with our actions and our words. 

How to Change Your Language to Support Women

There are many ways we can lift up and support women at work. Here are five ways to get you started. And there’s more.

As a female leader in a tech company that is on a mission to make workplaces more inclusive, compliant, and fair, I’d like to offer an additional solution: change your language. Language shapes the company culture (and our broader culture, too), and people crave supportive cultures and healthy communication in an uncertain world. Below review Fairwords’ glossary of terms that are no longer appropriate for today’s workplace and the preferred alternatives. This glossary is by no means an exhaustive list, but it’s a starting point. 

Terms for an Inclusive Workplace

Always Be Learning

Language and the workplace are forever evolving, and it’s our duty as humans to respect others and help our colleagues do the same. 

If you’d like to stay in touch and continue to learn how to keep your workplace inclusive and free of harmful and toxic language, subscribe to our newsletter. You can also get a free trial of Fairwords, an intelligent software that proactively trains employees as they type to foster inclusive, compliant, and fair business communications. Learn more.