All-Male Vs. All-Female Environments - My Observations

Hey,

This is Ish,

And today I want to talk to you about some of my observations working in all male environments and all female environments.

So I find this topic very interesting because I really like to understand people and the different dynamics at play,

And then also understanding the different energy dynamics,

And then conveying that to you and kind of sharing my insights.

So I find this pretty interesting.

And on paper,

You might see working at a male and all female work environment,

There are the same objectives and different metrics to hit,

But you'll find that there's a lot of different subtleties that you'll notice,

And you'll feel very different in either environment.

And I'm going to describe both the healthy sides of working in all male and all female environment,

And then also the unhealthy sides.

And you can substitute these words for masculine or feminine as well.

So in an all female environment,

There's no surprise that in the yoga industry,

It's predominantly female.

There's men in class,

There's mostly females there,

And then maybe like one guy or two guys.

And actually in my yoga teaching training,

When I was learning how to become a yoga teacher,

I was the only guy,

There's actually one other guy other than me,

And there were 35 women.

So there's a big skew towards the female population.

And I've also noticed the same holds true when I worked in yoga studios as a yoga teacher and also just an assistant,

Like a studio assistant working in the front desk.

It was very similar.

And I've also had different recruiting jobs where it was in a corporate environment,

But there's a predominantly,

Like for one job,

For example,

It was predominantly female for some reason.

Over there,

It was like 45 women,

One guy in the office.

So I don't know why it was like that,

But it was.

And one thing I noticed in those types of environments,

The predominant vibe is more on being very social and collaborating with others.

So that's one of the benefits for that.

That's the overall vibe that's present.

So one thing I noticed in the recruiting company is that the girls would always talk to each other.

They would talk to each other about everything,

Like small talks.

They talk about their friend's dog,

Their career aspirations,

Like what they ate for lunch.

So it's very specific.

And this contributed to the whole day,

And they would even extend relationships outside the workplace.

So I know men have a tendency to compartmentalize.

So this is my work friends.

These are my gym friends,

And they keep their lives very separate.

But one thing you'll notice in these types of environments with a lot of females is that the relationship expands and there's no lines.

So friendships extended outside of work,

And it had a very social type environment.

And on the healthy side,

Things were very collaborative.

So people were willing to help you out,

Even at the expense of not doing their work.

They'll come offer you a hand and then talk to you.

And it was,

Like I mentioned,

Very social.

And there was also a sense of fun and lightness to it because the environment was more about fostering relationships.

You felt very accepted,

And things had a lighter pace,

Which I found very refreshing coming from a very competitive background.

And on the unhealthy side,

You have things like gossip,

Drama,

And even backstabbing.

So if you ever watched a soap opera like Gossip Girl where everyone's kind of backstabbing,

The communication is more indirect.

So rather than confronting someone head on and talking to them specifically,

You're going to go behind their back.

So that's one of the downsides.

And because the lines of work and relationships and things are all just very out in the open,

A lot of the back fighting would happen on the weekends,

Or it would even just extend over something minor.

So there's always that looming undercurrent of backstabbing and manipulations in the unhealthy environments.

And that obviously isn't good.

And you also find that there is a lack of hierarchy.

So there is a hierarchy,

But it's not as solid or it's not taken as seriously as an all-male environment.

So you'll find that even though the boss is still your boss,

They can sometimes be your friend and that kind of gets confusing when you want to separate and have a complete structure to do your work.

And then I guess the last unhealthy thing would be that work didn't get done as much because you have,

Even though you do have objectives,

A lot of the female managers are more direct with you on how to improve and they're less harsh on that.

So they're more hands off.

They kind of just hope that you'd get it.

Meanwhile I had a lot of male managers that were just like,

Hey,

You need to do this,

You need to do this to succeed or you'll get fired.

So obviously there are different objectives there,

But the indirectness and kind of backstabbing is one of the unhealthy versions of being in an all-female environment.

So now let's go to the all-male environments.

And this for me,

I've been in those types of environments in school when I did wrestling or had a lot of sales jobs.

It was filled with mostly guys and it was very competitive.

And you'll notice the dynamics slowly start to change when you involve a few females in there.

So I noticed particularly in wrestling,

We kind of acted a different way,

Like it was a different dynamic.

And the moment two girls joined the wrestling team,

The dynamics got toned down a bit because you were mindful of the gender differences.

So that's something I noticed there,

Even in sales jobs or martial arts classes.

So overall vibe in a typically all-male dominated environment was all about growth and transformation.

So you'll find that guys will push you to grow.

And even in yoga classes where I have a male teacher,

They'll typically push me to go deeper into the pose.

And I've typically noticed that with female instructors,

They'll kind of have a more nurturing approach and tell you to take it easy.

It's all about self-acceptance.

So it's two different aspects here.

And I found that my yoga practice or any kind of skill has developed when I have someone that's pushing me a little bit harder.

And then you'll find that the overall vibe is more on success over relationships.

So in these types of environments,

There are clear targets on what you need to accomplish and relationships come second.

So it's more work first,

Relationship second.

In a female environment,

It was more relationships and work second.

So it's kind of flipped in that aspect.

And this was even true in the recruiting job.

So remember I mentioned,

I talked to you a little bit more about my recruiting job where it was all female and like maybe one other guy.

Well,

For this instance,

I did have a recruiting job where I was working in a different team and I got switched to a male manager and it was all guys on the team as well.

And you'll find that over there,

They're focused on accomplishing their goals.

They were like,

You need to do this,

This and this.

So it is all about hitting targets and it's more focused on objective rather than nurturing the relationships.

So that's one thing you'll notice.

And then one thing you'll also notice is that there's also a clear hierarchy and they actually follow it.

So rather than being a little bit catty and fighting to see who's like the boss or whatever the case is,

People have clear structures and they have no problem understanding who's a leader and who's not and they'll be happy to do their work.

And then a healthy male environment,

There's a lot of encouragement and guidance.

So guys will go out of their way to help you,

To give you pointers and help you grow.

And even in the healthy type of female environments,

I didn't really see that as much to help you accomplish your goals and set your guidelines.

And there's also a sense of complete honesty.

So like I mentioned in the previous example,

The unhealthy female communication is more indirect and a little bit more passive.

For the male communication,

It's more direct.

So in the positive light,

It can be just pure no BS honesty that can help you.

But it could also seem very harsh at times.

And it's when it's given in an unhealthy manner.

And then you also have honest friendships and closeness because you'll find that in these environments,

People will judge you more on your character long term rather than fluctuating day to day.

So if you did something to make someone angry yesterday,

They won't hold it against you today.

They'll look at your overall track record.

So it's something you noticed.

Now the unhealthy and the sides of this would be the masculine energy is more like a pushing forward moving energy.

And this can turn very unhealthy when it becomes impersonal and you start to see results over humanity.

So this is where you're so focused on pushing forward and that objective that you now start to overlook people and the communications in the community that you're trying to build.

So this is where you'll start to see employees leave companies because they're not feeling valued and they're not being heard.

And they commonly say that they're just a number.

You might have heard that.

And in reality in these types of environments they actually are because they're just another number on their dashboard rather than their sales board rather than an actual employee that has different strengths,

Weaknesses,

Communications,

Preferences and all that.

So it becomes a bit more impersonal.

And then another unhealthy behavior is just an overall tension and struggle that tends to accumulate causing stress over time.

So when you're in this very competitive type environment,

Although it can help you grow,

Too much of it can cause you to feel just a chronic stress because you're constantly competing and trying to fight.

And that obviously gives you a lot of stress.

So for both these sides,

When balanced they're perfectly amazing.

The feminine environments tend to be nurturing,

Cooperative and very fun.

And then on the healthy side of the masculine it becomes very encouraging,

Growth driven and you can really become your best self in those types of environment.

And the unhealthy versions of both are also pretty bad so you'll have on the female side you'll have more passive aggressiveness,

Backstabbing,

A little bit more manipulation.

And then on the male side you have more competition in an unhealthy manner where it becomes more impersonal and you become just a number.

So that's two of the different sides.

But ultimately you want to find a mix of both where you can find.

But it's also a path to see which one you resonate more with.

So I know certain people will absolutely love working in a competitive and growth driven environment and other people really like the aspects of growth and nurturing.

So it's really up to you but those are just some subtleties I've noticed working in both types of environments.

And I explore you to kind of just take note in your daily life how different people react in different environments just based on the energies and what they're putting out and what you can ultimately gain and grow from it.

Hope this helps.