Nate’s Notes 145: Professor Alison Fragale | Helping Women Navigate Power & Status Dynamics

Thanks for listening to this episode of Meikles & Dimes with Alison Fragale. What great insight she shared about power and status and how women can navigate these issues.

Though Alison didn’t explicitly set out to conduct research to help women, she realized that it was often the women who were sticking around after class asking for help.

And one reason for that is that women, more so than men, end up in positions of power without the commensurate status.

The alternative, status without power, is a much easier place to navigate. People think of you as warm, giving, and capable.

But people who have power without status, for example TSA agents at the airport, are often treated poorly, which can lead to instability and exit.

To help women who find themselves in these situations, Alison’s most common recommendation is for women to start sooner advocating for themselves.

Otherwise, they may find themselves in situations where people have already concluded that they’re not the valuable person in the room.

In summary, don’t wait to advocate for yourself.

It’s a simple idea. Please take it seriously.

Alison Fragale Bio:

Alison Fragale is an award-winning professor at the University of North Carolina, where she teaches courses on leadership and negotiation.

Alison has consulted with numerous organizations, including ExxonMobil, Bayer CropScience, and the U.S. Air Force and Navy among others. And her research has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, Fast Company, Inc. Magazine, and The Financial Times. Before entering academia, Alison worked as a management consultant for McKinsey & Company.

Alison earned her PhD in organizational behavior from Stanford and her BA in mathematics and economics from Dartmouth, graduating magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. 

I hope you enjoy learning from Alison Fragale today, because I always do.