Success: a tale of two standards ⚖️
You might have thought I’d talk about Jaguar? Last week I’ve touched on the subject of successful rebrands and I don’t want to repeat myself too much. So no Jaguar today (also why is everyone so obsessed with the Jaguar rebrand?).
Instead, I was inspired–or triggered–by a female creative. She’s mentioned how she thought women where not as inclined to spend time having “a play” to figure out creative outcomes but aim to solve a problem directly instead.
Therefore today, we’ll touch on a somewhat sensitive subject: success. What does it look like for men and women? How does societal expectations affect the way either gender react to or approaches work? Do we actually self-sabotage? Or are societal norms weighting us down?
📖 A tale of two standards
What does success look like? For men, it’s often about career achievements, wealth, and leadership. For women, society’s expectations are a tangled web: professional success, yes, but also being a great parent, maintaining a perfect home, looking polished, and staying likeable while doing it all. Sound exhausting? It is.
Society’s standards often force women into a pressure cooker of perfection. Men are allowed to focus on one or two goals: their “good enough” is celebrated. For women, there’s no such grace—multitasking mastery is the baseline expectation. And the cost? Burnout, self-doubt, and a persistent feeling of never being enough.
🎮 Play vs. practicality in creativity
This imbalance seeps into the design world. Men, free from the burden of constant perfection, often approach creative work with a playful mindset, exploring concepts with abandon. Women, conditioned by society to deliver results and prove their worth, may lean toward being more straightforward, focusing on execution over experimentation.
Is this dynamic innate? Unlikely. It’s rooted in societal norms. From a young age, boys are encouraged to take risks, fail, and try again, while girls are nudged toward being careful, competent, and dependable. These habits carry over into the workplace, where women may feel the need to prioritise precision over playful exploration to be taken seriously.
⚒️ Breaking the cycle
The solution? Recognising these biases and actively dismantling them. Encourage women in creative fields to take risks, make mistakes, and embrace the process—not just the outcome. Build workplaces that celebrate experimentation and foster equality. And most importantly, start redefining success—not as perfection, but as progress, passion, and authenticity.
