Perspective is a powerful force. From a young age we are taught to hold certain expectations, and those expectations influence how we see the world.
Stereotypes inculcated in you when you were a child may be affecting how you evaluate other people and even how you evaluate yourself.
Nobody rationally chooses to limit their aspirations, deny themselves opportunities, and misjudge other people’s talents based on a set of stereotypes. But that is just what we do without even thinking about it because stereotypes alter our view of the world.
In rural northern New Hampshire, the Women’s Rural Entrepreneurial Network (wren) is helping hundreds of women make an income from their homes. wren’s members run the gamut from women selling handmade crafts in their spare time to women offering professional services such as graphic arts design and bookkeeping full-time.
wren’s director, Natalie Woodroofe, says the group helps bring together women who otherwise might be isolated and lonely and feel there are no opportunities available to them. The members feel empowered to succeed and are more likely to overcome the skepticism that rural women working from home face when they try to make a living. “These women get more than their share of discouragement from people who act like they are seven-year-olds selling lemonade in their front yard.”
Instead, wren connects these work-at-home women with a network of women of all ages and professions. “There are attorneys and traditional business managers or owners who donate their time to wren, and these two very different women can greet each other on the street and feel a bond. wren crosses all those barriers—economic, cultural, educational—so that women can see their capabilities and their connections with each other.”
Natalie says, “Women who are creating and supporting themselves should feel good about what they do, and wren helps make that happen.”
People who are prone to use stereotypes in assessing themselves and others are 39 percent more likely to believe that opportunities are limited for others and themselves.
Frome 1999