“You can begin to call out any moments that make you feel less than”

Creative Career Conundrums is a weekly advice column from If You Could Jobs. Each week their selected panel of professionals from the creative industry answers your burning career questions to help you navigate the creative journey.

This week’s question:

I am my agency’s first and only woman motion designer. We’re a small team of four but the odds do feel against me, in having my voice heard, my ideas understood and treated with the same level of respect. The issue is more so my team unconsciously doing it. How do you navigate that conversation? And navigate a specialism that is seen as more male-focused?

How do I navigate being a motion designer as a mid-twenties woman surrounded by men?

Firstly I’m sorry you’re having this experience. It’s an additional barrier to just doing great work, and something I wish you didn’t have to contend with.

Luckily, I have a lot of advice for you and anyone else struggling to feel like an equal member of their team. Starting with this – you do not need to change. Your workplace should adapt to fit you, not the other way around.

There is a school of thought (perhaps an outdated one) that believes women need to act like men in order to progress. To be louder, more assertive, more masculine in your energy. But that’s pretty damaging. Both to the women who have to be inauthentic at work (it’s exhausting) and to the women coming up the ranks behind us. What message are we sending them? And honestly, you’ll end up labelled bossy or difficult to work with, so it very rarely works.

When it comes to how your team values you, you cannot force people to see you as an equal. Those biases run too deep, and existed long before you came along. It’s not your job to change their view on women. But you can begin to call out any moments that make you feel less than.

If someone cuts across you, say “can I finish my thought?” When someone makes an inappropriate or awkward comment, say “would you mind repeating that?” If you don’t have space to share your thoughts, ask for it. “I’d like five minutes to explain this thoroughly without interruption.” These small call-outs will hopefully highlight the double standards. You could ask for a sit down meeting with the team if you think that would help. But honestly, I’ve found those conversations make people pretty defensive, and don’t result in much change.

As for your specialism, you need to find your community. You know they say ‘your friends are the family you choose?’ You can apply the same logic to your peers.

Fill your network with women. Fill your feeds with women. Surround yourself with feminine energy outside work. Ladies Wine Design hosts meetups in cities all over the world. Sistaland is about to launch a new festival for women/trans/non binary creatives. You need to hunt out those spaces designed for women, and before long, the energy of everyone you meet will begin to flow into your day-to-day – leaving you more empowered at work.

If you’re looking for a senior female role model, you could try finding a mentor. There are some brilliant initiatives designed to help young women navigate the industry - Kerning The Gap for example. Or just reach out to leaders you admire. More often than not, you’ll find they’re more than happy to support the generation coming up behind them.

All of that influence and advice will help you exist at work authentically – we’ve all been there and we’re all rooting for you. You’ve already started finding your people.

In answering your creative career conundrums we realise that some issues need expert support, so we’ve collated a list of additional resources that can support you across things that might arise at work.

If You Could is the jobs board from It’s Nice That, the place to find jobs in the creative industries.

Want to stay on top of your job search? Or keep an ear out for when your dream job arrives on our site? Click here to set up tailored job alerts arriving straight into your inbox so you never miss an opportunity. See below for the latest opportunities: