Recognition - the One Factor That Drives Women to Suceed in the Workplace

In 2011, The US statistics showed that women's population had increased and reach more than 50 percent of the workforce. This was known to happen for the first time after years of always being fewer than men at the workplace.  

Even though female employees occupied almost 52 percent of professional-level jobs in the US, women are still found inferior over men in holding leadership roles.  A report shows that only 14.6 percent of executive officers, 8.1 percent of top earners, and 4.6 percent of Fortune 500 CEOs are women. In accounting fields, 54.2 percent are women but only 12.4 percent of them are executive officers and only 18.3 percent landed in the board of directors. There is none from the female population is a CEO. In the field of medicine, only 34.3 percent are female doctors and surgeons while there is only 15.9 percent who are becoming medical professors.

The account shows that though as of 2014, 50.8 of the US population are women; the rate of women succeeding in the labor force is highly noticeable lower compared to men. This circumstance can be associated with many factors one is that women choose to take care of kids than to work. But for those who prioritize their career over their responsibilities at home, one factor that can be attributed to the poor pace of their success is the failure to be recognized in their work areas.

According to Anna Fels, psychiatrist, the two aspects that help women to reach preeminence at work are mastery and recognition. "Doing a thing well can be a reward in and of itself. The delight provided by the skill repays the effort of learning it. But the pursuit of mastery over an extended period of time requires a specific context: An evaluating, encouraging audience must be present for skills to develop. It is vital for the expertise to be recognized by others," Fels stated. Fels explained how rewarding a child increases her desire to excel or to follow instructions.

She believes that the effects of incentives to children are similar to the consequences of recognition to adult women to stand out at the work place.  "Multiple areas of research have demonstrated that recognition is one of the motivational engines that drives the development of almost any type of skill. Far from being a pleasant but largely inessential response, it is one of the most basic of human requirements...In the typical learning cycle, recognition fuels the next stage of learning," Fels said. 

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