It's time to close the "self-promotion gap"

This is a call to arms.

New research that I commissioned in partnership with Southpaw Insights and Upstream Analysis reveals a conundrum:

• Most women find it inspiring to hear about other women’s accomplishments and successes.

• But most women would rather downplay, or minimize, their own accomplishments,  than own up to them.

This is not good, ladies. Not good at all. In fact, it’s a call to arms.

(Learn more about the survey findings and our methodology.)

As many before me have observed, role models are essential: “If you can see it,” the saying goes, “then you can be it.” Given all the systemic barriers to gender equality, it is incumbent on us to do everything we can, as women, to help lift each other up.

Allow me to be blunt: Women need to stop recoiling from self-promotion and instead see it as an altruistic act.

I know it can be scary to dip your toe in these waters, so in my next post, I’ll share five ways you can start talking about your accomplishments in bigger and better ways.