Yes! Generally, American women are more upfront and vocal about their achievements, awards and successes as part of the overall culture in a marketplace that’s very crowded and noisy. When Lanie Denslow and I wrote the best-selling book Working with Americans, we looked at why this is the case.
At its core, it’s about the expectation of equality which is made explicit in our Constitution and Bill of Rights. It doesn’t mean unconscious bias doesn’t exist in the US or UK, but it does mean American women demonstrate and are generally rewarded for confidence. American women also use networks unapologetically to advance professionally, which helps explain why LinkedIn was born in the US.That’s a tough question. It would have to be starting with how girls and women are educated in the UK, as those teachers who dampen their confidence are the ones who are doing lasting damage.
In our daughter’s case, she was educated in an all-girls school with a male maths teacher who enjoyed humiliating the girls that got answers wrong during his class. Though I complained to the head about his unprofessional behaviour, the school didn’t do anything to fixSadly, however, this offender is still working there and no doubt continues to put the girls off this and other STEM subjects.