TED Outline Format

Topic: How confidence has been weaponized against women in the workforce.

Purpose: To portray to the audience the negative reality of “Confidence Culture’s” effects on gender inequities in the workplace.

Thesis Statement: Despite its intention to empower woman to portray confidence as an advantage, “Confidence Culture” has removed accountability from the root of the problem – gender inequities from the hands of employers.

Introduction

Attention Strategy/Orienting Material: I plan to begin with harsh adjectives commonly used to describe women who present their selves as confident and begin to rebrand the adjectives throughout the duration of the speech.

Body

1. Main Idea – Gender norms and stereotypes contribute to the gender gap within the work industry and the way society views working women.

• Due to the preconceived notion that women are less capable than men, women are paid less, promoted less, and experience more unequal treatment through forms like racism, sexual misconduct, and more.
  • In the paper, “’Potential’ and the Gender Promotion Gap,” Li found that on average, women received higher performance ratings than male employees, but received 8.3% lower ratings for potential than men. The result was that female employees on average were 14% less likely to be promoted than their male colleagues.
  • According to two recent studies conducted at the not-for-profit Institute for Work and Health, it was found that women are four times more likely than men to experience sexual assault or unwanted touching on the job, no matter what occupation or industry they work in. They are also 13% more likely than men to be physically assaulted at work.

1. Main Idea – Confidence culture has removed accountability from employers and made self-love a women’s responsibility in order to achieve success.

• Because of the combination of confidence culture and gender norms, no matter the outcome, women’s lack of career progression is blamed on them.
  • The Harvard Business Review conducted interviews with 30 male and 36 female senior leaders in order to understand the impact of confidence on men and women’s career trajectories. They found that confidence was only ever mentioned in relation to women’s success and that, for the men, they did not consider confidence a relevant factor. They concluded, “…confidence is a highly gendered word aimed at and adopted by both women and men to explain away the slower progression of women at work.”
  • The Harvard Business Review’s study also found that “confidence was linked to more detrimental, longer-term effects, such as self-criticism, self-doubt, and overall poorer mental health.”

1. Main Idea — Confidence should not be labeled an end-all-be-all answer to women’s solutions. We need to recognize the reality of the unattainability of unwavering confidence.

Conclusion

Concluding Remark: Instead of encouraging women to “love themselves enough to speak up,” we should be encouraging the people in positions of power to do something with their privilege and ability to cause change.

Visual Content:

Ex. –  

When describing the gender gaps in the workforce in body section #1.

References:

Baker, Darren T, and Juliet Bourke. “How Confidence Is Weaponized against Women.” Harvard Business Review, 20 Oct. 2022, https://hbr.org/2022/10/how-confidence-is-weaponized-against-women.

Smith Senior scientist, Peter. “Women Four Times More Likely to Experience Sexual Assault at Work.” The Conversation, 23 June 2022, https://theconversation.com/women-four-times-more-likely-to-experience-sexual-assault-at-work-108380.

My Paradigm Shift projects are centered around “Confidence Culture” and how it contributes to gender inequalities in the workforce. Encouraging women to be confident enough to “step up to the table” and “fake it till you make it” in order to be successful in their careers has been a recent trend within the last decade (beginning in the early 2010s). While this seems like a positive movement that should motivate people towards equality, it has actually had extremely harmful effects. Instead of empowering women, confidence culture has been increasingly removing accountability from the employers and placing it on working women’s shoulders. In reality, research has dismantled the positive correlation between women and confidence in the workplace. By encouraging women to fake confidence as a power play while society simultaneously sets the standard for women to be warm, likable, unintimidating, undomineering, etc.,  it presents a paradoxical situation that is increasingly difficult to overcome. At the same time, confidence culture has been amounting almost every failure in a woman’s career to a lack of confidence. Didn’t receive a promotion? She doesn’t have enough self-confidence. But if she’s demonstrating high levels of confidence, she’s overdoing it and most likely disliked by her colleagues. 

This topic requires everyone’s attention, especially the people who relate to it the least. The burden of change cannot be placed on the under-represented. Unfortunately, men (specifically white men) receive more privilege than the rest of us– and with that privilege comes responsibility. Meaning, change towards diversity is going to primarily fall on the shoulders of the people with the power to do something about it. 

Baker, Darren T, and Juliet Bourke. “How Confidence Is Weaponized against Women.” Harvard Business Review, 20 Oct. 2022, https://hbr.org/2022/10/how-confidence-is-weaponized-against-women.

• Discusses a study where researchers conducted interviews with successful men and women about career failures and flagged common themes within the two genders’ answers. The research not only exposes the gendered nature of confidence but dismantles the widely-accepted positive correlation between confidence and workplace success (for women).

Gill, Rosalind, and Shani Orgad. “Confidence Culture Is Harming Women: LSE Research.” Confidence Culture Is Harming Women | LSE Research, https://www.lse.ac.uk/research/research-for-the-world/society/what-is-confidence-culture-and-how-does-it-harm-women.

• Dives into how confidence culture benefits corporations.

Gill, Rosalind, and Shani Orgad. “How Confidence Became a Cult.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 7 Mar. 2022, https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2022/03/limits-women-confidence-workplace-inequality/626562/.

• Analyzes the role of confidence in women’s view of theirselves, specifically in today’s time. Additionally, the article discusses the modern contributors of confidence culture.

Gourguechon, Prudy. “Women in the Workplace: The Myth of the Confidence Gap.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 10 Nov. 2018, https://www.forbes.com/sites/prudygourguechon/2018/11/06/women-in-the-workplace-the-myth-of-the-confidence-gap/?sh=492ed3576fd0.

• Dismantles the stigma surrounding 1. the difference between men and women’s confidence levels, 2. the importance of confidence in a woman’s success, and 3. the gender roles that contribute to gender inequalities.

Mayne, Mahalia. “Career Breaks Stifling Women’s Confidence at Work, Study Finds.” Home, PeopleManagement, 20 Oct. 2022, https://www.peoplemanagement.co.uk/article/1802711/career-breaks-stifling-womens-confidence-work-study-finds.

• Details a survey that provides a specific example of the consequences of gender roles when it comes to a woman’s success.

Zenger, Jack. “The Confidence Gap in Men and Women: Why It Matters and How to Overcome It.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 12 Oct. 2022, https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackzenger/2018/04/08/the-confidence-gap-in-men-and-women-why-it-matters-and-how-to-overcome-it/?sh=739af1d23bfa.

• Details the different roles confidence plays in men and women, how it contributes to gender inequalities in the workforce, and what we can do to help bridge the gap.

1. Introduction: 

•        You are unable to fight for equality without advocating for the advancement of inclusion of people with disabilities. Normalizing the establishment of wide-spread basic knowledge of American Sign Language is one giant leap in the right direction. It would allow the hearing-impaired to participate in society in a way they are currently unable to and allow society to treat them as normal in a way they are unable to without means of communication. Although, not only would it improve the relationship between the hearing and hearing-impaired, but it would also provide the hearing-efficient with a secondary perspective of the world. 

Thesis: 

•        The hearing-impaired have been forced to be more intune with aspects of the world the hearing-efficient tend to overlook. By bridging the gap between the disabled and more-abled, we are provided with a broader and deeper understanding of the world around us. A great way to exemplify this is by analyzing a recently viral video of the sign interpreter at a Waka Flocka concert who was so enthusiastic about her craft that Waka Flocka himself mistook her for a passionate fan.

1. Body:

• Waka Flocka’s sign interpreter, Holly Maniatty, is one of the most famous and in-demand (self-employed) interpreters.
  • She interprets musical performances for Deaf concert patrons in such a way that awes the Deaf community, hearing-efficient, other interpreters at the event, and even the performer.
    • The performers of the show have jumped off the stage to join her on multiple occasions. In Waka Flocka’s case, he even mistook her for an incredibly passionate fan.
  • The viral video efficiently portrayed to the world that being disabled is nothing less or more than normal. And, that the disabled can enjoy the world in different, but just as fun, ways as everyone else. 

• Deaf people and the hearing-impaired still enjoy concerts by putting the emphasis of their experience on feeling the vibrations of the songs through their sound waves.
  • The same way we can feel the sound coming from a loud speaker or see liquid move with sound

• They rely on other senses due to their lack of hearing.
  • Their senses other than hearing are likely even more proficient than a hearing person.
  • By learning more about the way the deaf experience the world, we can not only begin to bridge the communication gap between us, but also gain a broader perspective of our surroundings. 

1. Conclusion:

• A key aspect in our fight for equality involves shifting our perspective of the disabled from “them” to “us”. Just because they are different does not mean they are separate. We are all different. Instead of avoiding people who are unalike ourselves or avoiding discussing what makes them unalike, we should embrace the awkward. You grow and learn the most by working through the uncomfortable parts of life. Holly Maniatty’s interpretive performance at Waka Flocka’s concert shows us that there are alternative ways to experience the world and that sometimes they can be even better than “normal”.

Sources:

1. 10155286045691648

• The video of Waka Flocka mistaking his sign interpreter for a dancing fan.

1. https://longreads.com/2017/06/27/faster-than-the-speed-of-sound-an-interview-with-holly-maniatty/

• Interview of Holly Maniatty (Waka Flocka’s sign interpreter).

1. https://www.washington.edu/news/2001/11/27/brains-of-deaf-people-rewire-to-hear-music/

•   Article describing how the Deaf experience music.

1. https://www.cpr.org/2019/07/23/sign-language-interpreter-concerts-red-rocks-colorado/

• Describing a sign interpreter’s role and importance at musical concerts.

The symbol widely recognized for its meaning of “recycling” originated alongside the first Earth Day in 1970. Its three clockwise-pointing arrows forming a triangle are primarily presented as green to symbolize the environment and “green issues”. With the symbol’s creation, it brought increased recycling accessibility, and, as result, successfully challenged the commonplace perspective of an individual’s civic duty to protect the environment. In the long run, not only the entire human population, but the entirety of Earth’s ecosystem will benefit from the effects of the creation of the symbol. The artifact was created in response to increasing levels of global warming with the progression of society over time. The need for this artifact has only increased over time with the increase of climate change and global warming. According to NOAA’s 2021 Annual Climate Report, since 1981, Earth’s temperature has been increasing at twice the rate of its temperature increase between 1880 and 1980. The recycling symbol’s goal was to have the same meaning for every group of people on the planet– the representation of the importance of reusing materials in “the circle of life” in order to benefit everyone’s future. The artifact represents one of the ultimate acts of civic responsibility and engagement and can even be linked to seven of the United Nations Seventeen Sustainable Development Goals. Recycling is such an easy and important factor in saving our planet that everyone should implement within their daily routines.

The first advertisement that came to mind when referring to deploying commonplace within ads is the classic Snickers commercial: “You’re not you when you’re hungry”. They took a universal experience of feeling irritable when you are hungry and connected it to feeling better after you eat a Snickers. They identify a common feeling within their audience and use communicative techniques in order to convince the audience to use Snickers to solve a relatable problem. Maybe the ad-creators even considered the time the audience might see the advertisement. They could have assumed they’d be sitting on the couch watching TV, wanting a snack, and therefore, be more inclined to have a positive reaction to the commercial. In this case, I believe that the commonplace of being irritable when hungry is true, but a Snickers is likely not the healthiest and most effective solution. Regardless, the slogan has remained an effective, and clearly catchy, technique.

In a completely different approach, an evil eye could also be used as an example of commonplace within an artifact. An “evil eye” is a phrase widely-recognized as describing a look or stare that is projecting negative energy towards another person. For an example, a jealous friend that secretly wishes you harm. The evil eye artifact has been found throughout history as a symbol used to ward off negative intentions. It dates all the back to ancient Mesopotamia and has been seen within Jewish, Islamic, Hindu, and Buddhist traditions. Because of the commonplace feeling of sensing people projecting negative energy towards you, the evil eye has remained a relevant symbol throughout time and is still used as a means of protection today. Although there has been no evidence that the artifact truly works as any form of protection, as someone who wears the evil eye on a regular basis, I can testify to the effectiveness of providing comfort through shared belief and history.