*3.7. External Influencers of Resilience*

External influencers of resilience refer to the individuals who influenced them growing up and, in adult situations, those who nurtured their self-respect and the strength to confront disrespectful situations without allowing such situations to harm their professional advancement. More than half (58%) of the participants stated that the significant people who influenced them were women. These included their mothers, grandmothers, aunts, and/or women in the workplace. The remaining women (42%) indicated that the significant people in their life who influenced them were male. These included fathers, grandfathers, other male relatives, and men in the workplace.

## *3.8. Internal Forces Influencing Success*

Internal forces refer to motivational forces that are inherent to the self or the task. For the participants whose motivators were less conscious, the analysis suggested that they were primarily related to people they knew and circumstances that occurred early in their lives. These associations served as an unseen force that kept the participants motivated to persist in pursuit of their goals when faced with disrespect.

These early influences in their personal lives informed their perception of gender roles and gender expectations. For example, one participant's father was a strong influence because he essentially believed that women should not be molded to be a certain type, even though she grew up in a country where women were expected to play the role of homemaker. Another participant grew up in a small town in the South, and her grandfather taught her how to drive when she was six years old and not tall enough to see over the steering wheel. That experience became a reminder later in life when she found herself in difficult circumstances and was unable to see how a successful outcome was possible. For example, she married at a young age, divorced, and was left to raise a child as a single parent by the time she was 18 years old.

One participant did not remember consciously setting goals, yet she recalled two circumstances that stood out in her memory as an adult. The first was when she was a young girl. The women in her family either worked as grocery store clerks or as housekeepers cleaning other people's homes, except for one aunt who made a big impression on her. Growing up in the Midwest she remembers her aunt's company flying her to the East Coast for meetings during a time when few women worked in organizations beyond clerical workers. She had opportunities to visit her aunt and admired the lifestyle that she attained professionally.

The second circumstance was learning how to challenge herself and take risks, a skill that proved valuable as an adult. Because both of her parents worked, she and her brother were without adult supervision when they returned home from school, often referred to as latchkey kids. She was the oldest and therefore in charge. Her brother and his friends did not allow her to play with them. The boys would mainly play softball and girls could not play. Jeanie said this was her earliest remembrance of disrespect. She found ways to entertain and challenge herself by taking risks without any awareness of putting herself in danger. These experiences helped her develop characteristics and take risks that helped her succeed professionally.
