This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Utah chapter.
Face it, it’s too late to say sorry.
Dear so-called Nice Girl,
Stop and take a minute to think about your day. What did you do? Who did you talk to? More importantly, how many times did you say sorry? I’m sure your tendency to over apologize doesn’t even faze you as a harmful habit. How can it be bad? You’re just being nice, right? WRONG! It is dire that you remove this detrimental word from your vocabulary.
Lets be real, it’s pretty obvious that our society trains girls from a very young age to be the nice girl. Throughout the past, women were expected to hold their tongues and to not express their opinions. Flash forward to 2016 and those beliefs may seem a little dramatic. Though the idea that it’s unacceptable for a woman to lash out continues to be a behavior that many young girls and women within our generation still believe to be true. This social norm contributes to what is known as the “nice girl syndrome,” which often leads women getting the short end of the stick in their personal and their professional life.
It’s no secret that part of society still expects women to behave nicely and, “act like a lady.” Women are encouraged to be sensitive of other’s feelings. They are regarded as being impolite when they demand things for themselves, and are seen as entitled when they expect them. With so much pressure to be a certain way it’s no surprise that many women undervalue themselves, their abilities, and their ideas. Which is why women need to realize that obligating themselves to these standards can potentially contribute to the lack of their success.
Its been over fifty years since The Equal Pay Act passed and full-time working women in the United States are still only earning 78 cents of every dollar that man makes. Full time working women here in the beloved beehive state average making only 70 cents compared their male counterparts. Adding onto these unacceptable realities, it’s important to acknowledge that in 2015 only 22 women were listed in Fortune’s 500 CEOs.
If these statistics alone don’t encourage you to defy the U.S’s obvious gender wage gap, they should at least make you consider why it’s important to kick the goody-girl behaviors to the curb. So what if you give off the impression of being rude or bossy? What if it pays off and gets you a substantial raise? All women, especially college women preparing for the workforce, need to realize they are worth it.
As a women you, should never feel obligated to hold yourself back or discredit your career goals. It’s time to stop apologizing and/or over analyzing how to get what you want—and honestly what you deserve—in a career without coming off as unreasonable and hormonal. Letting go of society’s pressure to be a nice girl will allow you to become the badass-boss-bitch that every girl truly is.