At Good Shout, we want everyone to communicate well.
That means having discipline, being unique, and being clear.
But sometimes, things can get in the way.
One of the things we notice time and time again is women editing themselves and caveating their statements because they worry about being unlikeable.
Why? Because women are statistically more likely than men to receive unsolicited feedback such as: you’re too direct, too cold, too blunt, too confident, too ambitious, too shy, too much, too UNLIKEABLE.
So, we soften.
It takes bravery to be yourself, so we’ve decided to launch the Unlikeable Woman™️ initiative as a love letter to the women the world’s afraid of, because they refuse to edit and shrink themselves.
Latest news: Report from Good Shout finds that 50% of women don’t share their opinions in order to be liked.
New research reveals the extent of female 'shapeshifting’ in life and at work to be liked by others, including frequent apologies, downplaying achievements and softened speech.
The study investigated the concept of likeability and authenticity, revealing the pressure that women feel to be liked, and the lengths they’ll go to in order to make themselves more palatable.
"Likeability labour"
The report findings highlight what Good Shout calls "likeability labour" - the mental and emotional load of worrying about being liked - with 56% of women feeling pressure to be likeable (either all of the time or sometimes) versus only 36% of men. Additionally, the consequences of being disliked are significant for women, with 37% fearing that unless they’re liked people will talk behind their backs, and 18% expressing concerns about being overlooked at work. It’s a constant concern: over a third of women were worried about being seen as too confident or bossy, and 20% of women reported having been called bossy compared to only 12% of men. In addition, almost half of all women (43%) said that they downplayed their achievements as not to alienate others.
Download the press release here.
Download your FREE report.
Shapeshifters: what we do to be liked in life and at work
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