Date of Award
4-16-2021
Document Type
Thesis
Department
Business
First Reader
Dr. Kent Faught
Second Reader
Professor Jeanie Curry
Third Reader
Dr. Kevin C. Motl
Abstract
Ever since I was a young girl, the people in my life have always told me that I could do anything I set my mind to if I worked hard for it. Whether it was making a certain sports team, or trying to be the top in my class, their answer was always the same, “if you want to be the best you have to outwork the others.” So, that’s what I’ve been doing my whole life; only now I’m working to be the top student in the Hickingbotham School of Business and trying to be the best mom I can be, not trying to start on a high school basketball team or pass an AP test.
As I continued to grow though, I began to see things that contradicted what I was told when I was young. I saw challenges that plagued women while watching tv and movies and listening to my mom talk about her work, and I even experienced some as a new mother who recently started working. These challenges seemed to almost always be set in place by men or a time-old society that refuses to change. Seeing how more and more women every day are overcoming these struggles and thriving in a “man’s world” was inspiring to me as a young girl and is only becoming more inspiring.
Most of the challenges that I saw were challenges that were put in place by other people to hinder women. There are non-physical challenges like stereotypes that postponed women’s rise in the workforce. There are also physical challenges that may not all have been designed with hindering women in mind that do it just the same. These challenges are some of the most difficult to overcome because women cannot control them.
While it is hard for a woman to overcome an obstacle that she cannot control, it can sometimes be more difficult for her to face the obstacles that she creates for herself. These challenges can include mental roadblocks that sometimes are detrimental to a woman’s career and can permanently affect how a woman works toward her career.
Thankfully though, after numerous years and countless women coming before us, we can try to fight these old-school stereotypes and mental roadblocks. Women are being treated as equals in the workplace now more than ever, and I like to think that is because women are starting to stand up for themselves a lot more and are demanding boundaries. Hopefully one day the need for such measures will no longer be necessary.
Lastly, what is the point of thinking of boundaries you can set and mental roadblocks to avoid now if you cannot remember them in 10-15 years when they are going to be most useful. Thinking of a way to remember in the next ten years what I have learned during these four years of college has been a difficult task, to say the least. The best idea I have heard in the last few years that is discussed later actually came from one of my friends in my Business Leadership class and permitted me to share it with you.
This thesis intends to bring together all the stories and scenes from movies that people have seen and put things in a more appropriate perspective.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Dearing, Harly, "Achievers and Believers: Women Overcoming Obstacles in Business" (2021). Honors Theses. 803.
https://scholarlycommons.obu.edu/honors_theses/803