Feature
- Mental Health Screenings Not Necessary in Abortions
- The Burqa Ban is ON!
- Middle-Class Moms and Alcoholism: A Rising Epidemic?
- Murderous Moms: The Peters Tragedy
- Does Being a Pear-Shape Affect Long-Term Memory?
- Is Joan Rivers a Matriarch of Feminism?
- Mother-Murdering Teen Addresses the Media From Jail
- Forget Ron Burgundy ... Anchorladies on the rise!
- Celebrate! Argentina Legalizes Same-Sex Marriage!
- Saudi Group Using “Prophet of Four” Concept to Control Women
Look, I think Paul Thompson is a provocateur. I think, by writing a column alleging that women shouldn’t be in leadership roles because they are emotional, grudge-holding cat-fighters, he’s just asking bitches like me to get our diatribes on.
What’s funny is that the first boss I think of who embodies all of those characteristics is none other than XY-chromosome card-carrying Dunder-Mifflin regional manager, Michael Scott, of The Office.
Of course Thompson’s wrong. So wrong, in fact, his piece doesn’t even merit a point-by-point rebuttal. I only bring it up in the first place because I recently experienced a period of approximately 24 hours where I thought he might be right. I only wish I could scan in the several pages of my journal chronicling my “WTF-AM-I-SEXIST?” breakdown.
I spent last week at a writing course abroad under the leadership of a woman best described as a “stiff, old broad.” She was in charge. She was fiercely opinionated. She didn’t forget it if you were late. She took no prisoners. She wasn’t winning any friends. That wasn’t what she was there to do, after all, but I found myself resisting her orders literary guidance nevertheless. “Couldn’t she try catching flies with honey?” I thought, then immediately corrected myself: “Well a man in the same situation wouldn’t have to.” If I were in her place, I probably wouldn’t either. And that’s when it hit me: This woman and I are totally going to be BFF by the end of the week, because we’re the same. I’m going to work my ass off for her, and I’m going to like it.
I’m not a control group for this. 1) I’m not a group, and 2) I’ve only had one male boss. I can only speak from my own experience, and my experience with female bosses/leaders has not been a narrative of cat-fighting and grudge-holding. Instead, it’s been a narrative of me putting more work than ever into whatever product I happen to be working on, and not folding like a house of cards when I think I’m right. Time after time, I’ve earned the respect of my strong female employers and teachers this way, and our relationships are profound and beneficial long after I move on the next thing. Plus! There’s not that icky-sex thing that gets tangled up — even vaguely — in the male boss/female subordinate dynamic.
So cheers to my unflinchingly powerful lady bosses, past, present, and future: You bring out my best.
-
-
16
var feedback_widget = new GSFN.feedback_widget(feedback_widget_options);
I’ve had that exact WTF am I sexist moment, too. But my experience with female bosses was different. The women I’ve worked for weren’t “tough” they were mean. They didn’t inspire me to work harder and put my all into projects, they painfully micro-managed every aspect of the job. I know these two women (yes, only two) don’t represent all female bosses, though.
Are you male or female? My experience has been that female bosses were way meaner to other females than to men especially if the subordinate was more attractive. Kind of a Devil-Wears Prada- situation.
I’m a woman.
I don’t think calling us bitches between us is usefull at all
I know as many idiot guys as girls, I think it’s not gender related, it’s just a bunch of personal experiences
my boss is wonderfull and he’s a guy, so what?
One thing that is true is that a women in a leader role is more scrutinized than a guy, often for things that are not work related, say fashion for example
and that is so UNFAIR
That’s not always true. I know plenty of less attractive girls who hate their women bosses. These women like to have male bosses because they try to illicit sympathy from them.
I just had a conversation with a woman the other day where she admitted she liked male bosses better because they’re easier to manipulate. Also I have a lot of female colleagues who are only friendly with our male colleagues. I get really irritated with women who constantly seek male attention; I think it’s kind of pathetic. Some women do not want to have female friends, they just want male attention.
I like the part of “she liked male bosses better because they’re easier to manipulate”
that’s SO true! (but im not into it)
yeah, I know the type of girl you mean! I agree with you, not all women want girl-friends, because they are competitors :P
I think that’s a good point about men not having to use the honey method to be liked.For some reason I’ve noticed that it’s a lot more acceptable for a guy not to smile, to be slightly rude and impatient and to just get the job done without worrying about making connections with people than it is for a gal. Also, like on pictures, if a woman isn’t smiling in the picture the first reaction is to think that she’s upset or something’s wrong, but if the guy has a straight face it goes unnoticed. Definitely not all the time, but I’ve noticed it does happen quite a bit.
My current boss, a hospital administrator, is a BITCH. I don’t attribute this to her gender though, I’d be a bitch too if I had to deal with an employee like me.
cat-fighting?
Just attended an interview with the CEO of one of the biggest advertising agencies in Denmark, Jesper Kunde from Kunde & Co (yes Scandinavia, harbour of equality…). He was asked why there aren’t more women in leader roles in big companies. His answer: “You know, I really tried. I gave a few women the chance to do it, but in the end they don’t really wnat it. Women don’t want to give what it takes to be a good leader/manager!”
Great quote, isn’t it? It’s our own fault because we don’t actually want a career….or something like that. Generalisations like that make me angry!
P.S.: Norway has a quota. All companies that are listed on the stock market have to have boards that are to 50% female. Otherwise they’ll be fined huge amounts of money. Good or bad idea?
jesus! north europe is well know for women equality (or htat is what I thought)
so dissapointed to hear this!!
In a danish boss says this (very politely by the way, he says he “tried” :P) I wonder what an italian boss would say…
ANd let’s not start with their president
*sigh*
bad idea, shouldn’t be gender based it should be on merit.
Horrid idea
I work in an engineering company and all bosses are males, (sadly)
this is not the first time I hear this comment (that women are emotional blah blah)
and it totally PISSES me off
The last time I heard it was froma female work collegue, I mean!!
Its sad& true that we live in a society that teaches us sexist roles, so a lot of women tend to act “feminine” BUT
1. that is NOT something genetically inherent, its an adquired role/behaviour
2. It has advantages if you learn how to use them:
communication, taking into account other peoples opinons, motivating fellow work colleagues, and a big list of etcs.
for every idiot who writes an article saying that we can’t have leadership roles, there are one hundred people who KNOW we canmake a better job, sounds totally like masculine insecurity to me!!
I don’t work in a business setting, I work in retail. I have three bosses and they’re all women. The manager is a huge psycho bitch and nobody likes her. She’s all over the place (we think bipolar), prefers the male employees, and insists she’s the only one in the store doing any work. The other two female managers are amazing in different ways. They care about the employees and are more like family. I’ve worked with male managers before and I’ve found some of them to be awesome and some of them to be horrible sexist bastards. Of course I’m sure this is aimed more at corporate type bosses, but I just think from my experience it depends on the person not just their position.
True. I do think females tend to act in manipulative ways though that the men don’t. As long as you are doing your job properly I found male bosses pretty much leave you alone where female bosses will do passive aggressive/manipulative nonsense in spite of good performance. It’s not “always” like that of course, just personal experience. It’s like an insecurity thing or something.