| Diversity at Work - Keeping It Real | |
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| Hiding who you really are at work may be hurting--not helping--your career. Here's how to show your true colors and get ahead. |
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By: Lisa Armstrong, Photo: Masterfile—
The first day Mary Cofer wore braids to work, she was nervous. She'd spent ten years at American Electric Power just trying to blend in, with her hair relaxed stick straight, dressed in the corporate uniform of navy blue suit and pencil tie. "I started at AEP in 1976. The Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964," says Mary. "Technically, African Americans had only been human for twelve years. I felt that I had to assimilate." For Mary, then a manager at the Columbus, OH, firm, conforming meant concealing a key part of herself: her culture. She blended in so well that when she spoke up in meetings with her white colleagues, nobody paid attention. By assimilating, she essentially rendered herself invisible.
In 1986, Mary had an epiphany. Her 5-year-old daughter, Ayana, was being shunned by her mainly white classmates because of her dark skin. To instill a sense of pride, Mary took Ayana to a local African cultural center. "I felt so hypocritical because here I was, trying to teach her the value of her culture, and I was stifling all that within myself," she says. "I had to dig deep and ask myself, 'How can you expect her to model these behaviors that you're saying are so valuable when you're not doing it yourself?'"
Like Mary, many women of color today believe that being their true selves will make it difficult for their colleagues to accept them and will hurt their chances of getting promoted. Many companies, recognizing the richness that diversity provides, are having candid conversations about ways to make minority employees feel accepted and happy. But many women of color say that racism still exists, and that they need to fight negative stereotypes to legitimize their presence in corporate America. "Wherever there's a majority corporate culture that seems difficult to infiltrate, there's a pressure to comply," says executive coach Jane Hyun, author of Breaking the Bamboo Ceiling. Whether that means stifling an accent or straightening hair, the goal is to make white colleagues and bosses comfortable by appearing to be just like them.
According to polling results from Working Mother Media's 2006 Multicultural Conference, 55 percent of black women said they can't be themselves at work, followed by 29 percent of Latinas and 27 percent of Asian-American women.
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