A recent HBR article suggested that women stunt their careers in four ways. Same old stuff really. Women are once again told that they would be much more successful if they just spoke up more, took more credit for their work, asked more and stopped being modest about their accomplishments. This is the same old advice we have heard for centuries: Women need to be more like men. The problem with this is that we simply reinforce a lop-sided male-built world.
We create women who look and act like men. As a result we never get to experience that aspect of men and women that is feminine, nor do we ever change the current systems that are so clearly harmful because they are so masculine-based. We have to stop telling women to act like men and open our minds to the possibility that the way women do things might just be okay.
The original HBR article can be found at: http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/10/four_ways_women_stunt_their_careers.html