Redefining Task Orientation: The Invisible Barriers Women Face in the Workplace

Have you ever been put in charge of a project, gone on holiday, and returned to find that your male colleague has taken over without consulting you? Or perhaps you've proposed an idea in a meeting, only to have it ignored until a male colleague suggests the same thing and receives praise? Maybe you've been asked to take on additional tasks like organizing team events or mentoring new employees, while your male colleagues focus solely on their core responsibilities? If any of this resonates with you, then the text below will likely interest you.

Entering the industry has introduced me to a myriad of new challenges, one of which is mastering the art of being task-oriented. This focus on task management has proven essential in adapting to the fast-paced and dynamic work environment. But what role does being task-oriented play in thriving within such a demanding industry? Moreover, how does this approach impact women's work success and individual growth, especially when life presents its inevitable obstacles?

Being task-oriented generally means focusing on getting specific tasks or objectives completed efficiently and effectively. It emphasizes outcomes, deadlines, and deliverables, often prioritizing these over interpersonal dynamics. So, what is the typical profile of a task-oriented employee, and why does it matter?

A task-oriented employee is typically:

• Goal-driven: Prioritizing achieving concrete goals and meeting milestones.
• Efficiency-Focused: Valuing productivity and often looking for the fastest or most practical way to complete a task.
• Results Matter Most: Emphasizing output over collaboration, sometimes at the expense of relationship-building or long-term planning.
• Reliable Execution: Being seen as someone who can be counted on to get things done.

Side note, to check on own biases: Are you a woman reading this and picturing a male colleague as the task-oriented employee, wondering why it couldn't be you? Or are you a man reading this, picturing yourself in this role?

In industry, being a task-oriented employee is often valued because businesses rely on execution – products shipped, services delivered, and metrics achieved. However, if this way of working is not balanced with a more people-oriented approach, it can lead to poorly articulated collaboration frameworks.

For women, navigating a male-dominated field presents unique challenges, often requiring them to overcome biases and stereotypes that can hinder their professional growth. One significant challenge is the necessity of being task-oriented. In such environments, the ability to efficiently manage tasks and demonstrate productivity is highly valued. However, when women struggle to adopt a task-oriented approach, it can impede their career advancement and limit their opportunities for growth. Thus, how can women in these fields balance the demands of being task-oriented with the need to foster collaborative and supportive work environments?

First and foremost, it is crucial to clarify that there is no solid evidence indicating that men are biologically more task-oriented than women. Cultural and social factors can create the appearance of such differences in certain contexts, but these differences are certainly not an indicator of potential or capability. So, what is really going on? Why are we used to perceiving these differences?

• Stereotypes vs. Reality: Stereotypes often portray men as task-focused and women as people-focused. In real teams, there are task-oriented women, highly relational men, and everything in between.
• Social Conditioning: From a young age, boys are often encouraged to be goal-driven, assertive, and competitive—traits that align well with being task-oriented. Girls are often encouraged to be cooperative, empathetic, and nurturing—traits that align with being people-oriented. These expectations shape behaviour, not ability.
• Workplace Norms: Many workplaces have historically been designed around more “masculine” norms, such as individual performance, competition, and strict hierarchies. All these motivate task-focused behaviour in teams.

Being task-oriented as a woman in a male-dominated field can be a double-edged sword. Sometimes it can help women gain respect and credibility, but it can also lead to being misunderstood, overlooked, or held to unfair standards.

There are several advantages to being a task-oriented woman in a male-dominated field. When women show they can deliver results and stay focused on goals, it can counteract gender biases about capability. Women are then seen as “serious” or “professional,” which can earn respect in task-driven environments. If the team or industry culture values execution, metrics, and deadlines above all else, task-oriented behaviour can help women fit and thrive. It can also help them get ahead in roles where results matter more than relationships. Task-oriented women are often seen as problem-solvers, which can open doors to leadership roles if the workplace recognizes and rewards that.

However, there are also many challenges and tensions, one of them being facing double standards. When men are task-focused, it is often seen as strong leadership. Women can be labelled as “cold,” “too aggressive,” or “not a team player.” There is also invisible labour, as women often still feel expected to be people-oriented, checking on coworkers, handling interpersonal issues, and mentoring, among others, even when their task-oriented male peers are not. This means that women may carry a double load: producing results and managing team morale.

These dynamics raise an important question: What societal expectations hinder women from being task-oriented? There are societal expectations—both overt and subtle—that often discourage or punish women for being purely task-oriented, especially in professional settings. These expectations are rooted in long-standing gender norms, and they show up in different ways, depending on the culture, industry, and workplace culture.

• The Expectation to be Emotionally Available: Society often expects women to be caring, warm, and emotionally attuned. When women focus on the task at hand without cushioning it with empathy, smiles, or softening language, they are often labelled as “cold,” “bossy,” or “unapproachable.” Men doing the same are often just perceived as “focused” or “efficient.”
• The Double Bind of Assertiveness: If women are too soft, they are seen as ineffective. If they are too direct, they are seen as aggressive. This double bind often pushes women to overcompensate by being relational, even if they are naturally more task-oriented. Task orientation often requires assertiveness, which is still socially coded as a “masculine” trait and thus more tolerated (or even praised) in men than in women.
• The Expectation of Self-Sacrifice: Women are often expected to put others’ needs first: family, team, clients. Prioritizing task completion (especially their own tasks or goals) can be seen as selfish, rather than ambitious or responsible. For example, pushing back on unreasonable demands, like working on a holiday, is sometimes seen as “not being a team player,” especially for women.
• Invisible Labour Expectations: Even when women are task-oriented, they are often still expected to carry the emotional and organizational burden that men are not, such as remembering birthdays, taking meeting notes, mentoring junior staff, organizing workshops and meetings, remembering to bring pastries to the office (yes, as you read), and calming down tense situations, among many others. This “emotional labour” is usually unpaid, unrecognized, and can dilute the time and energy women would otherwise put into their core tasks.
• Family Responsibilities: When a woman wants to be task-oriented—focused, driven, efficient—but can’t fully lean into it because of family responsibilities, she is often caught in an unfair, unsustainable tension created by both structural systems and cultural expectations. Society often celebrates the dedicated professional and selfless caregiver in women, but this leads to burnout. The truth is that being task-oriented requires time, focus, and uninterrupted mental space—the very things that family demands often eat into. If women prioritize work tasks, they are judged for “neglecting” their family. If women prioritize family, even for good reasons such as caring for a sick child or protecting vacation time, they are perceived as “less committed” or “distracted.” Men in the same position are often praised for “helping at home.” Women are expected to do it automatically. But the impact goes beyond. Women in charge of families can only work in fragmented time—late nights, early mornings, and multitasking between care. This often means that their efficiency is high, but their visibility is low, as they are working behind the scenes, not in “performative” ways that might get them noticed. In consequence, women might miss meetings, key decisions, or spontaneous collaborations that signal leadership potential. Saying “I am unavailable on weekends” or “I need time to prepare because I am returning from vacation” can be misread as inflexibility. But for women, those boundaries are not luxury. They are survival mechanisms to protect their work and life.

What can be done to change this long-rooted narrative? Adopting a solution-oriented approach is crucial for addressing the unique challenges women face in the workplace. By focusing on practical and effective solutions, we can create an environment that supports women's professional growth and success. Based on my experience, the following strategies could be implemented in any workplace, in order to address some of the challenges developed above.

• Implement Flexible Work Policies: Introduce flexible working hours and remote work options to accommodate the diverse needs of employees, especially those with family responsibilities. This allows women to manage their tasks more effectively without compromising their personal lives.
• Provide Clear and Fair Evaluation Criteria: Establish transparent and objective performance metrics that focus on outcomes rather than subjective perceptions. This helps ensure that task-oriented women are evaluated fairly based on their contributions and results.
• Offer Leadership Training Programs: Develop leadership training programs that emphasize the importance of both task and people-oriented skills. Encourage participation from all employees to foster a more inclusive and balanced approach to leadership.
• Promote Inclusive Work Culture: Cultivate a workplace culture that values diversity and inclusion. Encourage open discussions about gender biases and stereotypes to create a more supportive environment for women.
• Address Unconscious Bias: Conduct regular training sessions on unconscious bias for all employees and focus these on managers in charge of gender-unbalanced teams. This helps raise awareness of biases that may affect the perception and evaluation of task-oriented women and promotes a more equitable workplace.
• Recognize and Reward Emotional Labour: Acknowledge and reward the emotional and organizational contributions that women often make. This can be done through formal recognition programs or by incorporating these efforts into performance reviews.
• Mentorship and Sponsorship Programs: Establish mentorship and sponsorship programs that connect women with senior leaders who can provide guidance, support, and advocacy. This helps women navigate the challenges of being task-oriented in a male-dominated field.
• Encourage Work-Life Balance: Promote a healthy work-life balance by setting realistic expectations for work hours and encouraging employees to take breaks and vacations. Managers should lead by example and respect boundaries set by their team members.
• Create Support Networks: Facilitate the formation of employee resource groups or support networks where women can share experiences, seek advice, and build a sense of community. These networks can provide valuable support for navigating workplace challenges.

What can women do, individually?

• Redefining Task Orientation: It is not always about being on but about owning outcomes. Delivering results on your terms counts just as much. Discuss these terms with your manager and make it happen.
• Protecting Boundaries: Being clear, unapologetic, and consistent about your time helps reinforce your professionalism—not weaken it. Find a female colleague to practice how a possible discussion with your manager could go, if you need to sharpen your confidence. Practice assertiveness with each other until it feels more natural.
• Making Invisible Work Visible: Document what you do, even if it is outside standard hours or meetings, and share your notes with your manager. Let others see the impact, not just the process. Don’t ever assume that something you do does not bring value. Write it down and discuss it with your manager.
• Finding Allies: Especially in male-dominated spaces, having colleagues or mentors who understand (or are willing to learn) can help push for structural changes. Talk with them, ask them for advice, or even share your frustrations with them. In my personal experience and my 20+ years of working in male-dominated fields, they have showed to have great value.
• Challenging the Norms: By acknowledging and voicing the tension, you are already paving the way for a different approach to work. However, it's important to be strategic in how you do this. Choose your battles wisely and maintain positive relationships while communicating your struggles. I understand your frustrations, especially when problems feel urgent and need immediate solutions. Patience is essential, as changing established patterns is challenging and may require convincing your (most likely male) manager and other (male) leaders about your experiences. You’ve got this!