Women at work and their tips, challenges, advice, complaints, and experiences

As the mother of a daughter, I try to find the balance between raising an assertive young woman with a strong, resilient spirit and an overly aggressive "you know what" that other women will hate.  This article over at WebProNews about raising female entrepreneurs really caught my eye this evening.

Author Cheryl Hall has really provided some great advice.  Frankly, a lot of this would be good for women of all ages, whether you're a young woman just dipping your toes into the career pool or an older Workerette trying to prevent burnout.  I happen to have my own bittersweet memories of watching those '80s shoulder pads, tennis shoes or Barbie-pink pumps heading through the office while the menfolk supervised.  (Heck, now that I think about it, Barbie WAS my career model!  Took me years to figure out that businesswomen didn't have to wear pink plaid suits to work!)

In all seriousness, Hall does make excellent points.  She's explained the following so well, I'll just tell you to go read the article.  But here are her reminders of the strengths we women have, and those lessons we can (and should!) teach our girls:

• Think about money early and often.
• Confrontation is OK!
• You're networking all the time.  (Remember that Mommy business card post!)
• The trend is our friend (to think, folks used to say marketing to women was a trend, eh?)
• Doing what you love is where the real money is (Amen and AMEN!)

I love that Hall doesn't sugarcoat the fact that there will always be some sort of gender bias somewhere.  That's just life.  Nobody's perfect...not men, not women.  We just have to find ways to teach our girls to strive to be their best, not someone else's image of the perfect woman.