Embracing Femininity Professionally: 3 Key Feminine Qualities to Win in the Workplace

 What first comes to mind when it comes to your femininity?

Do you embrace it?

Is your femininity something you feel you can openly express?

How about in the workplace? 

Traditionally, men and masculine traits have dominated the workplace when it comes to business. It would be considered masculine to talk about what you, as an individual can do.

In history, men have taken the lead, and the feminine opposite or even complimentary role to that is in acting as a support.

Contrary to some beliefs, men and women can possess both masculine and feminine qualities, energies, and principles.

While masculine energy is in being present, logical, focused and protective, feminine energy is nurturing, soft, intuitive, and grounded. 

Today things are changing, as more women are becoming CEOs, business owners, and leaders. Both feminine and masculine traits have their benefits and uses.

Femininity does have a place in the workplace, and embracing your femininity has its benefits.

Beyond Women’s Intuition

Ever hear of the term women's intuition? Maybe you thought it was made up, silly, or just an old wives’ tale.

Intuition is very real and very much an asset that both men and women should utilize. It’s just the case that women are more easily capable of picking up such insight. 

Think of mom, that great aunt of yours, grandma or some female figure in your life that when something was going on with you or someone in your life, they just had a feeling.

They somehow knew without anything having needed to be said. This is because women are particularly good at reading facial expressions and picking up on social and emotional cues. 

Things may be changing but women still face many difficulties in the workplace when it comes to advancing. Everyday, women face microaggressions and have their authority undermined.

A woman’s intuition is something that has been overlooked and undermined but embracing femininity through intuition can provide a unique edge.

Intuition is a very powerful and feminine strength to wield in the workplace. Whether you’re considering new business ventures or the character of potential clients, intuition helps you to better make such important and sometimes time-sensitive decisions.

The more you listen to your heart and tap into your senses is how you gain the experience to cultivate intuition, so it becomes more natural and easy. 

Refer to the character, Elle Woods from the Legally Blonde franchise. Elle was the example embracing femininity. She was a girly girl, wore pink, coordinated her outfits, and was always done up from head to toe.

That’s what many people first see and even think of when they hear femininity but Elle was also very determined, smart, hardworking, kind, and most relevant of all, intuitive.

When no one else believed Brooke, the case client, Elle listened to her senses, revealed the truth, and ultimately won the case and freedom for her client, all because of a woman’s intuition. 

More than Just a Caregiver

Women have often been placed in roles as caregivers by society. The role can have negative connotations but it’s because caregiving is traditionally associated with mothering. The feminine quality can be shared by men or women. 

Essentially if you are a caregiver, you are a mama bear. You protect, support, and nurture your team and their talents.

You also inspire your team and create a healthy work environment that allows the team to be and achieve their best. 

Of course, you’re all adults and no one expects you to be anyone’s mother. You have enough on your plate, and caregiving doesn’t always come easily.

It’s not for everyone but for those who want to be the best leaders they can possibly be, and women make for some of the most effective leaders.

Caregivers embracing femininity can make for some of the best team leaders in business. If you’re giving the team, the inspiration, care, space, and all the things they need to succeed, how can you not? 

Think back to when you were a kid in class. Did you ever have a teacher in your life that was this figure for you who listened to, cared for, and supported you?

As teachers, they were meant to protect and inspire you by creating a healthy and safe learning environment.

If you were ever struggling and not turning in your assignments, as caregivers they provided you the push or support you needed to continue on and succeed. 

Emotion and Empathy In the Workplace

There are some who believe that emotion has no place in business. That’s not true. There’s definitely a place for emotion, especially empathy, in the workplace.

There’s a place for embracing femininity in the workplace. We aren’t robots meant to sit at our desks all day and only compute numbers in a spreadsheet or quickly check out customers in a waiting line.

We’re human and we have emotions. Women and men get emotional and are capable of expressing empathy. 

A positive way to use empathy at work is by being in tune with your team and making time for them. You listen to them and help them feel heard, and learn their strengths, thoughts, worries, and aspirations so that you can better help them and the team to function.

It might sound simple but learning who a person is at their core isn’t an easy feat.

It all starts with being open and vulnerable. Not everyone is going to immediately open up. It can take time and effort and understanding.

Using empathy to better understand your team can help you to grow closer, and as a leader, better guide your team toward success and feeling good too. It gets easier through embracing femininity.

 Femininity is not a specific color, look or gender. You can like pink, dressing up, and just being feminine but beyond those surface-level things, embracing femininity is more about seeing and even embracing who people are at their core.

As women, we possess traits and skills like intuition, empathy, and caregiving, that have been overlooked and undervalued but not only help us in embracing femininity but give us an edge in winning at work too. 

✍️ Written by Olivia Baylou