In the wake of Women's History Month, learn how to move beyond awareness and take concrete action by tackling the pervasive issue of misogyny within the mental health industry. 

Through insightful commentary and references to scholarly works, you will unpack the complexities of misogyny and its impact on mental health therapists.

From controlling behaviors to the gender wage gap, you will shed light on systemic issues that perpetuate inequality.

This episode isn't just a critique; it's a call to action. Start by recognizing the signs so that you can confront misogyny to enhance the mental health landscape for everyone.

• Gain a deeper understanding of different definitions of misogyny 

• Identify how misogyny shows up in the mental health industry.

• Empower yourself to create positive change in your professional & personal life.

And don't miss the live podcast recording via LinkedInAudio on Wednesday, where Aisha dives deeper into this important topic & invites listeners & join the conversation during a LIVE Q&A.

Resources referenced in this episode are below or you can visit beyondthesession.com

Linkedin 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/aisha-r-shabazz 

Your Path to a Thriving Private Practice Quiz

https://aisharshabazz.com/thriving 

Vox

https://www.vox.com/identities/2017/12/5/16705284/elizabeth-warren-loss-2020-sexism-misogyny-kate-manne 

The Standard

https://standard.asl.org/20284/features/internalized-misogyny-limits-female-self-expression-success/ 

Pew Research Center

https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/03/01/gender-pay-gap-facts/ 

Characteristics of White Supremacy Culture 

https://www.whitesupremacyculture.info/characteristics.html 

Narcissistic Misogyny 

https://www.hpwsolicitors.co.uk/blog/narcissism-misogyny-and-gas-lighting-what-does-it-all-mean/#:~:text=Misogynistic%20partners%20may%20restrict%20a,behaviours%20perpetrators%20of%20abuse%20engage

Copyright 2024 Aisha R. Shabazz

So women's history month is over.

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Now what if you want to

take time off, take it.

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If you want to make

more money, ask for it.

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And if they tell you, no, all you

have to do is via hashtag girl

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boss and start your own business.

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But Aisha, it is not that simple.

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I have imposter syndrome.

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What?

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You tell me that 31 days of women's

history month awareness wasn't

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enough for you to find your mojo, get

your groove back, shatter the glass

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ceiling and send the elevator back

down for the next gal pal in line?

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What's a girl to do?

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I have an idea.

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Instead of blaming imposter syndrome

for your womanly woes, let's

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confront the real villain misogyny.

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Welcome back to another episode of Beyond

the Session with Ayesha, the business

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podcast for values driven mental health

therapists who want to keep the private

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practice they work so hard to build.

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After listening to this week's episodes,

my wish for you is that you walk away

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with a different or deeper understanding

of how to recognize the ways in which

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the mental health industry perpetuates

misogyny and have the courage to

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confront it dead in its tracks.

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So before we define

misogyny, let me be clear.

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This is not an episode

dedicated to bashing men.

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This is an opportunity to open your eyes

to the subtleties of systemic oppression

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within the mental health industry.

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There are many types of systemic

oppression and misogyny is one of them.

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If you're curious, you can find a more

comprehensive list linked in the show

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notes, or if you've attended saving

the superheroes with me recently, they

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are listed in your resource guide.

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And if you have plans to join us

for tomorrow's live recording of

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the beyond the session with Aisha

podcast, where we'll talk about how

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to confront misogyny, you're going

to need to know what it looks like.

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So I'm going to reference a few

articles that I found online that

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interview various individuals.

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Who define misogyny in different

ways and we're going to talk about

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different examples of what that looks

like in the mental health industry.

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During an interview with Vox entitled,

What We Get Wrong About Misogyny, Kate

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Mann, the author of Down Girl, defines

not only misogyny, but also sexism.

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Kate argues that misogyny is not about

male hostility or hatred towards women.

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Instead, it's about controlling

and punishing women who

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challenge male dominance.

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I've.

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I had the opportunity to witness

conversations on platforms like

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LinkedIn, where there are people who are

socialized as men saying that they wish

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that there were more male therapists.

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Now, I don't think there's

anything wrong with this.

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When I worked with the department of

veteran affairs, the majority of my

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patient caseload were Men, and that's

no surprise to anybody because the

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military is comprised of mostly men.

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So when we're looking at this idea

of being controlled and punished as

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women who challenge male dominance,

we have to really think about.

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Those moments that we have noticed

that in the absence of men?

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Another way that Kate defines misogyny

is it rewards women who reinforce the

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status quo and punish those who don't.

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And when we're looking at the status

quo within the mental health industry,

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one way to challenge the status

quo is starting your own business.

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Most business owners,

most founders and CEOs.

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And so when you share with someone,

Oh, I'm starting a private practice

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and there is this air about

someone that's saying, Oh, that's

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difficult to do, or that's hard.

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Or what made you think to do that?

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Or, Oh, you know, you'll

be back in a few years.

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Would they say that to someone if therapy

was a male dominated career field?

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Maybe, maybe not.

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Kate continues to say that misogyny

and sexism work hand in hand to

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uphold those social relationships.

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And sexism is an ideology that says

these arrangements just make sense.

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Women are just more caring or

nurturing or empathetic, which is only

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true if you prime people by getting

them to identify with their gender.

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And I really love the fact that

Kate says this in her interview

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because we hear this a lot.

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Women are more empathetic.

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Women are more caring.

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Women are better listeners.

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Women are more nurturers.

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So subliminally.

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Women are being nurtured into this

caregiver role from the seat of being

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a therapist, and there are some people

that would argue that, oh, well, this

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is an opportunity for men to become

more empathetic, more nurturing, more

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engaged in active listening, but a lot

of that is rejected because therapy

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is not a male dominated career.

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Kate continues to say that sexism

as an ideology supports the social

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relations of the patriarchy, but

misogyny enforces it when there's

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a threat of that system going away.

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Some people might say, Oh my gosh, my

head is spinning all these different

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terms, misogyny, patriarchy, sexism.

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Oh my, this is too complicated

for me to understand.

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I'm going to turn this off right now.

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Well, I'm going to challenge you on

that because I was able to find a

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lovely article written by students

from the American school of London.

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Their online news outlet is

called the standard and they

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wrote an article back in 2022.

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Entitled Internalized Misogyny Limits

Female Self Expression and Success.

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And I find it very interesting

whenever I encounter a therapist

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who identifies as female and says

to me, this is too complicated.

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I can't handle this.

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And I just want to give you an idea

of some students who are actually

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turning things on their head and really

taking these quote unquote complex.

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Ideas and simplifying them in the

way in which they see the world.

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So Olivia, at the time of being

interviewed for this article was wrapping

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up their freshman year in high school.

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And for those of you that are

thinking, wow, a high schooler

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had these complex ideas.

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You have to consider and check your bias

because that sounds a little like ageism

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to me, but I'll tell you what Olivia said.

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Olivia said.

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The patriarchy is a system in which

men hold power over all other genders,

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perpetuating the notion that women

are inferior to men, which can lead to

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women manifesting hatred for themselves.

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So this idea that you are not

smart enough to run a business,

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that you were never good at math.

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And so you couldn't possibly understand

how to make money for yourself.

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One could argue that this

is internalized misogyny.

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Olivia goes on to say that within a

patriarchal, I love this term because

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it doesn't look like it should have

this many syllables, but, uh, the way

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you say it is, is interesting to me.

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It does not roll off the tongue.

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It is complicated to say and to deal with.

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So in the patriarchal society that we

live in, women are often valued less.

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Those stereotypes can easily affect

a woman and how she sees herself.

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And I agree with this wholeheartedly.

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This is not a thing that

people are able to escape.

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We see these imageries and

these messages all the time.

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I need to see myself as less than.

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I need to see myself as not worthy of.

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And when we're looking within the mental

health industry, this is still happening.

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So the author of this article, Eva, has

defined internalized misogyny in this way.

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Internalized misogyny can pressure

women to have an aversion to items and

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concepts associated with femininity from

the color pink to long nail extensions.

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I will link it down in the show notes

so that you can read it in its entirety.

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You know, the beautiful thing

about confronting these ideas of

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femininity and what girl stuff is

and is not is fascinating to me.

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And we see this a lot when it comes

to the term of professionalism, When

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you were working in a traditional

office setting, the only time that you

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were able to dress casually is when?

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When you had a home visit, you were able

to wear pants or jeans at the very least.

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If it was casual Friday, or if there was

some sort of volunteer event where you

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were quote unquote going to get dirty.

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When you're in an office setting,

you're supposed to dress professionally.

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You're supposed to dress business

casual at the very minimum.

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Maybe khakis, but maybe black pants.

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Oh, you're wearing pants

and not a dress or a skirt.

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Oh, you don't have makeup on today.

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What's wrong?

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Oh, your hair's not done.

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Are you feeling sick?

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So these messages are being

played out to us, not.

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Only because we are mental health

professionals, but because this is how

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women are often treated in the modern

workplace still to this day, there's

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this fun little meme that started going

around at the beginning of the pandemic

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where it shows a side by side photo.

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You've seen them.

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It's either a Fox or it is.

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I,, female actress and, you know, on

one side, it says what your profile

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Picture avatar looks like, and on

the other side, this is what you look

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like when you turn your camera on.

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And you know, it's, it gives you a fun

little chuckle, but in actuality, it's

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like, is that really something that

we need to be perpetuating that, you

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know, yes, we know that if someone is

going to take a professional photo,

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they're going to take some time to.

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Feel confident because a photo

is going to be a little bit more

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long lasting than a temporary live

image that you have on camera.

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But even if not dress the way you want

to dress, wear what you want to wear

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makeup, no makeup hair done or not.

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It doesn't matter.

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Really matter or does it there are

many people that will say I will not

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work with a therapist who doesn't

look like they're professional.

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So we also have to look at the

intersectionality between misogyny

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and all other types of isms or.

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Systems of oppression, some of you might

be thinking yourself, professionalism,

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that's a system of oppression, maybe

not in the modern context, but perhaps

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we are using the term professionalism

and the act of being professional and

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being professionals as a way to support

these ideas of systemic oppression.

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So.

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Let's move on to one of the hot topics

that always comes around during Women's

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History Month, and frankly, you really

can't talk about Women's History Month

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without talking about the gender wage gap,

and so out of the Pew Research Center,

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the gender wage gap has actually remained

relatively stable in the United States

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over the past 20 years, give or take,

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and in 2022, they said that women

earned an average of 82 percent of

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what men earned, according to this new

analysis of median hourly earnings of

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both full time and part time workers.

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So independent of whether or not

you are full time or part time,

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the median hourly earnings Were

82 percent of what a man earned.

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Now, these results are very

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Okay.

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So 20 years when women earned

80 percent as much as men.

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So for every dollar that

men earned, women earned.

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80 cents.

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Okay.

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Back in , 2002.

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And, you know, bump that up to 2022.

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It's 82 cents for every dollar.

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So we know that we are not

spending our money 1 at a time.

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We're spending more than 1 at a time.

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So we're just going to bump that up.

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So for every 8 and 20 cents that

women earned, men earned 10.

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And let's just bump that up even more.

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If you have attended a training with

me talking about recurring revenue,

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or if you grab the 32 realistic recurring

revenue streams for therapists, you

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have seen the stats that I have added to

that guide that are showing you that a

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dollar is not going as far as it used to.

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So 100, 000 is about What it takes to

sustain yourself or maintain yourself

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give or take, your lifestyle, but that

is essentially what the research says out

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of the department of labor and statistics.

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So if a man earns 100, 000 in

salary, how much is a woman going

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to make in comparison to that?

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Well, it's going to be 82, 000.

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So how would you feel if you knew

that instead of making 100, 000,

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you were actually making 82, 000?

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I think you'd be pretty

annoyed, irritated.

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Insert whatever words you want to

insert here, this is technically

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a family show, so I won't add any

expletives, but you get the idea.

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That would actually make

you a little prickly.

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And so this is not

something to be ignored.

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So here's the kicker according to

Pew, it says that even though women

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have increased their presence in

higher paying jobs, traditionally

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dominated by men, such as professional

and managerial positions, women as a

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whole continue to be overrepresented

and lower paying occupations relative

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to their share of the workforce.

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This may contribute to

gender differences in pay.

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So what does that tell you?

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If mental health therapists are not

making a livable wage then that means

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that we as an industry are actually

contributing to the gender wage gap.

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So again, I ask you,

are you okay with this?

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It's not a matter of, well,

why is this happening?

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We know why this is happening.

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Misogyny, the patriarchy, sexism.

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Should I go on?

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But what are you going to do about it?

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We'll talk about that on

tomorrow's live recording of the

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podcast, where we talk about.

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How are you going to

confront these realities?

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Because this isn't something

that is make believe.

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This isn't something that's just

like, a conversation starter, , this

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is something where we can just have

a coffee talk and, , mull over some

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ideas on what we could possibly do.

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In a utopian society.

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No, this is something that needs to

be addressed now, because if it's

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not addressed, then guess what?

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You're not going to be able to have

the lifestyle that you've been dreaming

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up of the moment you decided to start

a private practice and keep it going.

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Many people that I interact with, not

just the people that apply to work with

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me in strategy sessions and my ongoing

individual coaching clients, they have

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the desire, aspiration, and need to

make more money in their business.

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There are people with families, there are

people with chronic medical conditions.

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These are people that they are

ready to take the leap into

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what they know they need to do.

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And yet there are many people outside

of this fantastic group of folks that

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I get to work with that are saying,

this is too complicated to deal with.

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I'll just stay in my lane.

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Imposter syndrome is taking over.

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I don't think I can do this.

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The fact that you're listening to

this podcast, the fact that you're

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listening to this podcast episode

should show you evidence enough that

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you want things to be different.

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And now it's time for you to

contribute to things being different

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instead of sitting on the sidelines.

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So I'm going to end this podcast with

talking about a subject that really

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isn't comfortable for anyone to discuss.

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And frankly, I'm.

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Uncomfortable as I was outlining

this podcast episode, but the level

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of transparency that I believe is

required for me to show up for my

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clients authentically requires me

to tell you stories about my life.

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And so there's an article that I

found, again, it is based out of

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the UK and it references the term

narcissistic misogyny and they define

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this as misogynistic partners that may

restrict a woman's freedom to work,

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socialize, or even work out as they

perceive women to be their property

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and therefore their right of movement

should be controlled by a male partner.

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When we're thinking about.

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The relationships that we

have, whether you're in a

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heteronormative relationship or not.

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Or you are in a situation where your

manager is in a position where they are

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controlling what you do and what you don't

do, whether you work from home or whether

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you work in person, whether you get paid

time off or whether you have to work,

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whether you have to cover somebody else's

shift or caseload, or whether you have to

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take on more clients beyond your capacity.

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So controlling the way that you move.

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Is misogyny, but adding that extra

layer of narcissistic misogyny, I

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think is very important to attend to.

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I personally have never been in

a romantic relationship where

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my ambition wasn't an issue.

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And.

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In all fairness, there have been stages

of my life where I have leaned into the

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workaholic framing of go big or go home

sort of mentality when it comes to work.

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And I've worked very, very hard to

resist the urge to go into that.

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And sometimes it, it rages, you know,

it's, it's ugly head, but overall I'm

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very much past where I used to be.

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And I celebrate that every day.

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The thing is, is that if you are in

a relationship with someone, whether

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they're a romantic partner or someone

that you work for or work with, and

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they are trying to control the freedom

that you have, this is problematic.

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And the bittersweet element of me telling

you this is that Is that I'm speaking from

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experience present company included, and

if you have someone in your life that is

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controlling every single thing you do or

attempting to control every single thing

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that you do, there are opportunities for

you to learn how to confront that head on.

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Does it necessarily mean

that they're a narcissist?

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I don't think so.

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If they're using narcissistic misogyny,

because there are many social science

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scholars and even, you know, psychologists

and psychiatrists who believe that

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narcissism actually exists on a spectrum.

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And some people argue

that everybody has like a.

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Splash or flavor of narcissism

to a varying degree, but that's a

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conversation for a different day.

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I know that narcissism is one of those

buzzwords that's been going around

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over the past couple of years, but in

any event, The point that I'm getting

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at is that we can see these patterns,

not just in systems that exist around

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us as these vague entities, but we can

also see them in the people that we're

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working with and spending time with.

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So as a reminder, there's a great

resource that is available online

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and it breaks down the most common

systems of oppression summarized.

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As the characteristics of white supremacy

culture, and I hope that you will join

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us for the robust conversation tomorrow

for the live podcast recording of beyond

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the session with Ayesha tomorrow's live

recording will actually take place at five

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15 eastern standard time in the evening.

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The time was bumped back due to my

second guest appearance on Sirius XM

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with doctor radio on channel one 10.

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So if you are a serious XM subscriber,

I can't wait to, be coming to

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you through the airwaves tomorrow

afternoon from 4 PM to 5 PM live.

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And then at five 15, you can join me on

LinkedIn to listen to the live podcast

322

recording of our episode, where we will

talk about how you can confront misogyny

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within the mental health industry.

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If you're curious to know about how this

opportunity of me being a guest on Dr.

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Radio came about, I will be sharing

the details on the behind the scenes

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all access channel on Instagram

access to this channel is available to

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current email newsletter subscribers.

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All you have to do is just reply

to a recent email newsletter with

329

your Instagram handle, and I will

add you to the all access channel.

330

And if you're not an email newsletter

subscriber yet, all you have

331

to do is visit aishaarshabazz.

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com backslash thriving and take the

path to a thriving private practice

333

quiz and you're in like Flynn.

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So until next time.

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Take care, talk soon, and keep thriving.