This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #StrengthHasNoGender #CollectiveBias
Finding a career after college was difficult for me. I got my degree in psychology in 2005. I had all intentions of continuing my education and possibly becoming a social worker or therapist but here we are 12 years later and I am neither of those things.
Instead, I am in a career that is normally saturated with men – the world of Information Technology as well as being a blogger, a mom of two amazing kiddos and a wife to a pretty cool dude. Finding balance has always been something that I have needed to find with my family and professional life.
In the last year my role at my current agency has changed a lot. Not only am I still apart of the IT department but I am now
the manager of our database as well as a manager of our business support
team. What a year it has been. Through my years of writing on this blog I
have always been super honest with you all.
And that is going to continue right now.
This move/promotion was a shock; sure I have put in my years here at
this agency but being in a position that is usually a male led department I
always felt a little under qualified. Let
me go back in time a bit. When I first
started attending my IT/Database meet-ups, training, and conferences I was
shocked at the amount of women that were NOT in the room with me. While we do not want to admit it, this is
sad. Why are we so particular when it
comes to careers and genders?
Well, after years of getting used to that picture in
conference rooms and meet-ups I have finally felt comfortable in the career I
am in. This is me – I never in a million
years thought I would be empowered enough to get up in front of a crowd of IT
folks and talk about the way we use our current database but guess what? I have
done that and that is a great feeling of accomplishment. The road was long, and I had to really prove my intelligence and knowledge to not only my colleagues but also to outside folks in the IT world that I was more than capable to do the job in front of me. This took me finding the confidence in myself – once I did that, people saw that confidence as well.
While I am proud to say I am totally rocking this career thing I am still having to work on that balance between being a mom & wife, a manager, and a blogger. What a tall order but just like I learned through my experiences of finding my strength in my career path I am finding how to empower myself to be the best at everything I have on my plate.
The folks at Brawny get it. Women have been viewed as helpless, small, not smart enough, etc. for years. Something is happening, the marketing departments of companies know the true stories of women. Stories of women who’s stories speak nothing of the stereotypes we were once put into. I am proud to be one of those women, by entering a world of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math.
For the first time ever, the Brawny brand is introducing a new design for its packaging featuring a woman in place of the iconic Brawny Man. These limited-edition packages will be available in Walmart stores during Women’s History Month. How cool and STRONG is this?? This design was made for The Strength Has No Gender™ campaign that is highlighting inspirational stories of everyday women in cities across America. These women have been breaking down barriers in traditionally male-dominated industries and empowering others to continue to do the same.
So, while I may lead a very crazy busy schedule I know I am strong and smart enough to be the person that all of my “people” need me to be. While I may feel like superwoman at work after I complete a project, the moment I walk into my house and the chore list is long and daunting I want to run to my room and hide under the covers but with the super cleaning power of Brawny paper towels I am able to find a way to balance it all.
With the years of crazy I have found the perfect way to really tidy up our house in 30 minutes using Brawny paper towels. I make sure to do these steps before we have unexpected visitors and also when the house just needs a nice cleaning. It isn’t an overwhelming to do list and it really can be done in just 30 minutes!
Clean Your House in 30 Minutes
2. Wipe down kitchen counter tops, stove, sink and tables using Brawny® Paper towels. Make sure you move all dirty dishes to the dishwasher. (10 minutes)
- We always pick up Brawny paper towels when stocking up on household items. Brawny® Paper towels offer more sheets on every roll verses leading national brand comparable roll and sheet size. This is a necessity when you have the amount of daily messes like us! It never fails, every meal there is at least one milk spill! KIDS!!!
- Brawny paper towels help us clean up whatever life throws on our tables, stoves, counters, floors, windows and faces!
- Limited-edition packaging comes in a Brawny® Pick-a-Size 8 Giant Plus package.
- Pick up this exclusive to Walmart, limited-edition Strength Has No Gender™ pack to celebrate International Women’s Day on March 8th!
I was so glad while reading your story. It isn't easy to change your field altogether and pursue something totally different to what you imagined yourself doing. Strength is in the mind and will power not gender!
IT is an awesome career. When I graduated college no one was even using personal computers. (Dating myself.) It's such a great job for women I'm surprised that more of them aren't doing it. #client
Your article is so relatable for me in so many different ways. I won't get into the complexity of my story but just know that I really enjoyed reading about your success and your struggles in male-dominated careers (which seems to be so many of them!). As a mom, blogger and a 9 to 5 working gal, I totally get what you're talking about!
It's still a man's world. I believe it always will be…but women have definitely come a long way. Just think, 100 years ago women were considered second class. Auxiliary. We couldn't even vote! Good for brawny for changing the model – it's about time. It's the women who buy it after all.
I was a psych major because I wanted to be psychologist and abandoned the idea because I did not want to get my masters so I went into advertising and then marketing in financial services. I understand the feeling of being the only one. Although marketing is predominantly women, as you get promoted it's mostly men so managing that road is not easy. Good luck!! And happy that Brawny recognizes changes in the workplace and women's very important place.
Us women have a come a long way however, it never ceases to amaze how discrimination is still very dominant in our society. It's easily unnoticed but it's definitely the elephant in the room sometimes!
I LOVE this campaign by Brawny. I've been seeing it floating around the web and I think it is such an amazing way to show support and encourage the strength of women!
What an inspiring post! Especially on International Women's Day! Thanks for sharing your struggles throughout your success…not many people do that. And I never noticed the change in Brawny's ad campaign. What a victory! Then to tie in your cleaning tips…perfection! I am HORRIBLE at organizing tasks so this was a super helpful read.
Enjoyed reading!
-Lindsay
FollowYourDetour.com
As someone who worked at a college, there are certain careers that men tend to like more than women because it just naturally is more interesting to them. Working in admissions opened my eyes to the fact that it isn't always so heavily based on gender. A large majority of males preferred computer based degrees or mechanical based degrees such as engineering, etc. However, most of them females that came in, preferred nursing or working with children. I think some jobs are largely based off of the preference of the gender in general and not 100% based on gender issues.
I agree with you. Strength doesn't have a gender. Also, thanks for the cleaning tips. I am obsessed with keeping as clean of a house with three boys, so I am always looking for cleaning hacks that allow me to get more cleaning done in the less amount of time.