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BBC News
44 minutes ago
- BBC News
Kenyan women and likeability in the workplace: 'I felt an unspoken pressure to smile'
During a meeting at her office in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, 24-year-old Faith suddenly became nervous - reluctant to be perceived as difficult in a part of the world that does not like opinionated young had started pleasantly enough. Faith, whose name has been changed to protect her identity, had dutifully laughed along at the bad jokes made by her then a senior colleague made a suggestion that she felt would not work practically. But before Faith could express her opinion, her colleague mentioned her name."And Faith agrees with me!" The others in the meeting room turned to face her as her colleague added: "You agree, don't you?"Faith did not agree, but felt under pressure: "I didn't want to be seen as difficult or moody."I felt an unspoken pressure to smile, to be agreeable, to not be disruptive," she tells that point she was two years into her first job at a sought-after company and among the first women in her family's generation to go to university - she had so much more she wanted to achieve."How do I progress if I start disagreeing with colleagues at such a junior stage?" she is aware she faces what a Women in the Workplace 2025 report, which focuses on India, Nigeria and Kenya, calls "the broken rung". This refers to a significant barrier on the corporate ladder that has seen a steep drop in women's representation between entry-level and management in May by McKinsey, the management consultancy has for the first time expanded its annual research beyond North America and found that in these three big developing economies, women remain significantly underrepresented in senior leadership Kenya, women make up 50% of entry-level roles in sectors such as healthcare and financial services, but that drops to just 26% at senior levels. The pattern is similar in Nigeria and did not challenge her colleague in the meeting. She smiled and said nothing. There is now a term for her experience - experts call it "likeability labour"."[This] is a really fun name for an incredibly depressing reality," says Amy Kean, a sociologist and head of the communications consultancy Good Shout, which coined the term."It refers to the constant second-guessing, overthinking, paranoia, shape-shifting and masking women do every single day in order to be liked in the workplace."Ms Kean's UK-based study - Shapeshifters: What We Do to Be Liked at Work - which also came out in May, states that 56% of women feel pressure to be likeable at work, compared to just 36% of on a survey of 1,000 women across the UK, the report also highlights how deeply ingrained, and unequally distributed, the burden of likeability is in professional details how women often feel the need to soften their speech using minimising language, even when confident in their phrases include: "Does that make sense?" or "Sorry, just quickly..."This kind of constant self-editing, Ms Kean explains, may act as a defence mechanism to avoid being seen as abrasive or overly assertive."There is also a class element to this," she adds, in reference to the UK. "Working-class women, who are less used to modulating themselves in different settings, also get accused of being direct and also suffer in the corporate world."For many women who are not used to advocating for themselves in their personal environments, the stakes go beyond fitting in or being well-liked."It's not as simple as being popular, it's about being safe, heard and taken seriously," Ms Kean this year, she organised a summit in London for women feeling the likeability labour pressure, titled Unlikeable Woman. More than 300 women turned up to share their UK study is not an outlier. Sociologists say the pressure women feel to be likeable in order to advance professionally is a global trend. A 2024 study by the US-based recruitment firm Textio supports this. Analysing data from 25,000 individuals across 253 organisations, it found that women were much more likely to receive personality-based feedback and that 56% of women had been labelled "unlikeable" in performance reviews, a critique only 16% of men on the other hand, were four times more likely than other genders to be positively labelled as "likeable"."Women perform likeability labour for a mix of social and cultural reasons," says Dr Gladys Nyachieo, a sociologist and senior lecturer at the Multimedia University of Kenya."Women are generally socialised to be caregivers, to serve and to put the needs of others before themselves and this invariably transfers to the workplace," says Dr Nyachieo."There is a term for it in Kiswahili - 'office mathe' - or the office mother."The office mathe does additional labour to keep a workplace functioning, including making tea, buying snacks and generally being of service. I ask what is wrong with this if that is what a woman wants to do."There's nothing wrong with it," Dr Nyachieo says. "But you won't get paid for it. You will still be expected to do your work, and possibly additional work."Dr Nyachieo believes that in order to tackle likeability labour, systemic change has to happen at the root, including implementing policies that allow women flexible hours and have mentors that advocate for herself mentors several young women just starting out in Kenya's workforces."I take mentoring young women very seriously," Dr Nyachieo says. "I tell them: 'If you act pleasantly all the time, you will go nowhere. You have to negotiate for yourself'."One of her mentees is Faith."She's taught me not to feel pressure to be smiley and nice all the time," Faith says."I am working on it." You may also be interested in: The Kenyans saying no to motherhood and yes to sterilisationKenya femicide: Why men fail to condemn deadly misogynyWangari Maathai - death of a visionaryKenya's Thandiwe Muriu: Standing out in camouflageNew faces of protest - Kenya's Gen Z anti-tax revolutionaries Go to for more news from the African us on Twitter @BBCAfrica, on Facebook at BBC Africa or on Instagram at bbcafrica
Reuters
44 minutes ago
- Reuters
Brazil's BRF minority shareholders back Marfrig deal
SAO PAULO, Aug 2 (Reuters) - The majority of minority shareholders of Brazilian poultry and pork processor BRF ( opens new tab have approved a proposed tie-up with beefpacker Marfrig ( opens new tab, according to a securities filing on Saturday. The move will create another global food company with origins in Brazil and factories in South America, North America, the Middle East and China. The filing showed 71.4% of minority shareholders in BRF approved the terms of the deal with Marfrig, not including abstentions. Shareholders representing 90% of BRF's free float cast their votes, the filing said. The results indicate support for the deal's completion ahead of an extraordinary general shareholders meeting scheduled for August 5. In May, Marfrig unveiled a plan to complete its takeover of BRF, a move that could be followed by the listing of shares of the combined corporate entity, to be called MBRF, in the United States. In public disclosures, Marfrig and BRF said the proposed deal would involve a share swap whereby BRF shareholders would receive 0.8521 shares of Marfrig for each BRF share they own. MBRF will also control Marfrig-owned National Beef, a meat processor based in the United States.
The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
India to defy Trump's threats and keep buying Russian oil, government sources say
India will keep purchasing oil from Russia, despite President Donald Trump threatening to impose penalties for doing so, two Indian officials said on Saturday Officials in India, the most populous country on Earth, told Reuters and That contradicted a statement from Trump, who on Friday told reporters his understanding was that India would 'no longer' be buying oil from Russia. "These are long-term oil contracts," an unnamed Indian official told Reuters. "It is not so simple to just stop buying overnight.' Last week, Trump said India would face unspecified penalties for buying Russian oil in addition to a 25 percent tariff on goods. However, China and Turkey, two countries that also purchase large amounts of Russian oil, have not faced similar penalty threats. India drastically increased its import of Russian oil after the Kremlin invaded Ukraine in 2022, while many other countries began to cut back it's imports. The cheap availability of Russian oil allowed India to reduce its reliance on other countries, such as Saudi Arabia or Iraq, who typically sell to Asian countries at a higher price. While India faced criticisms for doing so, the general consensus around India's increase in imports has been that it helps avoid a global surge in oil prices. It's unclear why exactly Trump has targeted India in reducing its import of Russian oil. The president has recently expressed frustrations with Russian President Vladimir Putin for failing to come to the peace talks table to negotiate a ceasefire in Ukraine. On Friday, India's external affairs spokesperson Randdhir Jaiswal said India and Russia had a 'time-tested partnership' and that India was analyzing its energy sourcing. "On our energy sourcing requirements ... we look at what is there available in the markets, what is there on offer, and also what is the prevailing global situation or circumstances," Jaiswal said, according to Reuters. India heavily relies on energy imports to sustain the needs of it's more than one billion population. It imports more than one million barrels per day.
