As a woman in the business world, you are susceptible to particular dangers that other people might not recognize. In fact, you may not even recognize them if you can’t see specific situations from an outside perspective. You always have to look out for these dangers, because they can either be implicit or explicit, and it can be very hard to fight against the status quo to get them fixed.

There are three dangers in particular that you can look out for immediately as a woman in the business world. First of all, there are pay discrepancies that you will have to fight against all the time. It may seem impossible to try to get equal pay to your male counterparts, and the danger is that you will become complacent about this.

Then there is the matter of unwanted attention. This comes in many different forms to females in business situations, but the bottom line is that if you don’t want attention, then you have to aggressively root out situations where it becomes pervasive.

Beyond the idea of unwanted attention, there is the potential for underlying harassment as a woman. Harassment can be sexual, or it can be professional, but no form of harassment is acceptable.

Pay Discrepancies

There is a distinct and known discrepancy between male and female paychecks doing identical jobs. Even though companies know about this, they are still not doing enough to fix it. This can be dangerous for women because it reduces the number of opportunities that they have to thrive in the business world, and it can cause them to choose careers that don’t fit their personalities or skill sets appropriately. Do not let pay discrepancies define your career – fight for what you believe you deserve.

Unwanted Attention

Women in business get unwanted attention all of the time. Because so many generations of men were programmed to pursue women regardless of the feedback they were getting, it becomes a dangerous, uncomfortable, and counterproductive situation more often than anyone would like to admit. There are even instances of stalking when it comes to male counterparts trying to get the attention of the females that they work with in the professional world. This is supremely unhealthy and may ultimately need to be handled in a legalistic manner if social cues don’t work too stop unwarranted attention.

Underlying Harassment

Even more than just getting the attention that they don’t want, women often have to deal with harassment in the workplace. Again, it has become such a problem in many cultures that it is impossible for women to work without being distracted by men who cannot restrain or control themselves.

It is essential as a woman to know how to defend yourself against this personally, professionally, socially, and legally.