Are you a woman with ambition, trying to achieve in what was once a man’s domain?

If so, it is worth asking yourself:

• Do you feel pressured to play your work role ‘as if’ a man?
• If so, where does this pressure come from?
• What would happen if you played more to your strengths as a woman in your workplace?
• Would you be more effective in your career and happier in your personal life if you did so?

From my many years of consulting to business and professional women I know that adopting a ‘male persona’ can come at real cost to your health and happiness. While what I call ‘the Maggie Thatcher’ model of doing business may result in career success it can leave you stressed, distressed, and alone. Indeed if you are a single, successful woman who’d also like to share life with a man, then cultivating attributes deemed ‘masculine’ can make it difficult for you to attract and keep that special guy.

It does not surprise me that it is predicted that by 2020 up to 25 per cent of households in Australia may be occupied by women on their own. Unless female attributes are acknowledged and fostered in the workplace and the world at large, ever-increasing numbers of women will fail to attract a partner for life… and continue to wonder why.