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Zoom etiquette, networking skills and the power of email follow-ups all feel more crucial than ever during the pandemic. The pandemic has allowed women to gain confidence in the professional sphere, but challenges still remain.  

When work and life moved online because of COVID-19, we lost the separation between work and family, which changed how we view our co-workers, said Summer Cerbone, president of Syracuse University’s chapter of The Women’s Network. The pandemic has made us realize that we all have families to care for, regardless of our gender, Cerbone said.  

“It’s common for women to not be able to focus on their families while in the workforce without being judged or stigmatized as producing inferior work, but COVID-19 humanized everyone, including men, to the realities of family life,” Cerbone said.

Despite changes to the workplace during the pandemic, women still experience inequality. Women of all races earned 82 cents on average to a dollar that men of all races earned, according to Census Bureau data. This data, which has concerningly persisted into the 21st century, confirms the sentiments and goals of The Women’s Network, which has a national motto of “Redefining Ambition.” 

“The word ‘ambition’ has a long history of being stigmatic when used to describe women, who too often have been labeled as ‘trying too hard,’” Cerbone said. “For men, however, being ambitious has always been seen as an accomplishment.” 

But what about now? Is it still so incriminating to be a woman and to be ambitious?

Yes, unfortunately. Women have a long way to go for “ambition” to cease being a gender-charged label concerning productivity.

And it’s on-campus support systems like The Women’s Network that help young women find their respective voices as students and young professionals, regardless of men’s sexist opinions. Yet how exactly can these voices be developed, when there still exist so many problematic implications with feminism? 

To be a feminist, quite simply, is to advocate for women’s rights based on the equality of the sexes. It’s only very recently that more respect and widespread effort has been paid to the feminist movement, as evidenced in historic events of the last decade, such as the Women’s March, the #MeToo movement and the March for Women’s Lives. This progress stands out in stark relief from disappointing statistics such as the gender pay gap. It instead provides hope and empowerment to university women on the brink of entering the real world and finding professional success. 

But professional success is not constrained to women of certain education levels, cultures or social classes. It is imperative that young women on college campuses know that they shouldn’t measure themselves based on starting salaries or LinkedIn statistics but rather by the quality of their work. They should find joy in that work and in being given opportunities for growth, be it at a personal or associate level. 

The road to an equitable and fair workplace for all genders may be long, intersecting and winding, but organizations such as The Women’s Network can hopefully sow the seeds for generational change. Cover letter workshops, job interview pitches and guest speaker presentations represent some of the opportunities offered by the group, all of which promote the practice of self-improvement to be gained from collaboration. 

Since The Women’s Network’s inception at SU in 2017, more chapters have sprouted up across the country at other colleges. In the words of the founder of The Women’s Network, Jamie Vinick, “I envision a far-reaching, national network of ambitious women who will support one another and provide opportunities for both personal growth and professional advancement.” 

With these optimistic words in mind, perhaps we can move forward on this long road toward lasting social change for current and future women in the workplace, knowing that entire networks of women stand with us in numbers. 

Eleanor Chapman is a sophomore english and textual studies major. Her column appears biweekly. She can be reached at echapm02@syr.edu. 

Published on April 8, 2021 at 12:37 am