Women Benefit From Self-Promotion

I’ve talked with PR professionals and college students alike about how to advance in their careers. No matter their background or age, research shows that more women in the United States need to embrace self-promotion.

In 2019, three women-owned firms, Southpaw Insights, Mighty Forces and Upstream Analysis, released their findings from a national survey focused on the gender “self-promotion gap.”

The study examined the comfort and propensity of women and men to promote themselves and their accomplishments. Major findings showed that most women would rather minimize their successes than discuss them. The study surveyed 1,016 men and women 18 and older, and identified trends across these groups, including:

• 40% of women would rather quit social media for a week than talk about themselves in public
• 27% of women would prefer to visit the dentist than talk about themselves in public
• 16% of women feel very  comfortable talking about physical or athletic accomplishments 

Jessica Broome, Ph.D., founder and president at Southpaw Insights, shared that the research illustrates clearly that women find other women’s accomplishments inspiring but would rather downplay their own accomplishments than talk about them.

The overall findings seem relevant today and were not that surprising given my lived experiences. However, some differences between ethnic groups imply some encouraging gains. Broome shared more insights from the research in this interview.

Why is it hard for women to self-promote? 

Our research found that women are hesitant to self-promote, particularly at work — only 24% of women are very comfortable talking about their accomplishments at school or work.

Interviews with women around the country revealed that a main contributor to this aversion is not wanting to seem “boastful” or make others uncomfortable. It’s worth emphasizing that not only do women overall avoid self-promotion — they would rather downplay their accomplishments than tout them. 

Women were more comfortable making themselves seem like less [important] than they were. This is especially troubling when you consider that women are still paid less than men, and subjected to so many other forms of inequality in the workplace and beyond. 

How can self-promotion be helpful to other women in their careers?

One of my study collaborators, Amanda Hirsch, suggests reframing self-promotion as education. Instead of women thinking that telling their story is bothering people with “me, me, me!” think of it as a chance to educate others about how you can help.

Why is self-promotion vital to women’s well-being?

We see self-promotion as an act of service to other women. A majority of women (83%) have been inspired by hearing women talk about their successes and accomplishments, but seven in 10 (69%) women would rather minimize their successes than tell people about them, and six in 10 (57%) women would rather downplay than talk about their strengths and abilities. This creates an obvious conundrum — and opportunity. 

If we reframe self-promotion as an altruistic activity, then will more women want to share their accomplishments and abilities? 

What else is helpful for communicators to know? 

One interesting callout is age differences; we wonder if the tide may be turning when it comes to self-promotion. Older women (55-plus) are more averse to self-promotion than younger women, potentially creating an “inspiration deficit” for young women in search of role models. 

Hearing other women talk about their accomplishments inspires young women, but 41% of women age 55-plus (who have presumably more accomplishments to talk about) state they were uncomfortable talking about their accomplishments in front of a crowd.

Older women are uncomfortable talking about their accomplishments with people they work with or want to work with (49% somewhat/very uncomfortable vs. 39% for women overall), and more likely to downplay strengths and abilities (66%) than women under 55 (53%). 

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