My last few posts I referenced House of Cards, specifically Claire Underwood and the public’s perception of her being president. This got me to thinking… why are all females in leadership positions treated differently than males? Why are they often perceived as b__? Why are we our own worst enemy?
I am guilty myself of feeling this way about women in power positions. In my previous legal internship, I had a supervisor who was a female. My main boss was a male, very nice, helpful, and seemed relatable. The female for some reason or another never tried to offer me advice, help or put me to use. She was very oppressive,and quite frankly just acted like she didn’t want to be bothered. Our lesson commentary outlines managerial traits as being masculine, which in turn makes people perceive females as negative or too authoritative.
The commentary goes on to set guidelines that (Hughes, Ginnett, & Murphy, 2012) feels women should stay within to be successful leaders. They state that women should not act like men, but not act too much like women either. (Hughes, Ginnett, & Murphy, 2012): Women are to
“Take risks, but not be consistently outstanding
Be tough, but not macho
Be ambitious, but know they will not receive equal treatment
Take responsibility, but follow others’ advice”
The part that bothers me is the “not be consistently outstanding” aspect. Why must we continue to dim our lights so that men feel superior? I plan to go to law school after this, I have been exposed to many court cases where I’ve sat on the side of the judge. He never treated me less than; he encouraged me to be outspoken. I suppose most firms are “boys clubs” which lead me to believe that women have to try and work harder to succeed.
Another aspect regarding women and leadership that I’ve observed is that men tend to give me more opportunities . This is partially due to the way I look,and my outgoing and friendly nature. This seems to work against me (as I mentioned above) when it comes to women. I’ve never felt confined to the above guidelines because I’ve honestly never been discriminated against for being a woman (by men). Women prevent women from breaking through; that’s why there are few leadership positions for us.
Take Hillary Clinton running for President. All the polls showed that she scored lower than her opponents with women. They had a million reasons why they didn’t like her. Some felt she should be home with her grandkids; others didn’t like her outfits, rhetoric, or whatever else. It seemed as if her views were last on the list. The same can be said for women in the workplace. There are women who feel some of their coworkers should be home taking care of their kids than competing for the promotion against them. I recognize that men require a balance from us as leaders. But why do we never talk about the balance we must keep with other women?
Sources Cited:
Northouse, P.G. (2013). Leadership: Theory and Practice. Los Angeles: Sage Publications.
Hughes, R. L., Ginnett, R. C., &Murphy, G. J. (2012). Leadership: Enhancing the lessons of experience. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Companies.
Lesson 13: Leadership and Diversity,Pennsylvania State University. Retrieved February 6, 2019, from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1975088/modules/items/25786927
rxb5512 says
I agree with your point of view and I was also alarmed at the use of masculinity as a required attribute of a leader, but this study was conducted in 1959. In a time where the majority of the pool of leaders used for the research were male, of course, masculine would be one of the consistent characteristics.
The point you make in your post about women preventing other women from succeeding has an official term; “Queen Bee Syndrome” it is when a female boss will discourage or even prevent other female employees from advancing their careers. It is a king or in this case…let’s say master of the mountain game if you don’t wish to lose your power you do whatever it takes to keep it, “women operating in male hierarchies sought to preserve their rare turf by thwarting attempts of other women who sought to rise as they had done” (Baldoni, 2013). But is it specifically just some women that can act in this manner? Don’t some male leaders do precisely the same thing? Is there a term for when, specifically, men behave this way? There is not; it is similar to the word “bossy” it has a negative connotation and it is generally used when referring to a woman. I am not condoning how this boss treated you, but if you wish to stop a behavior, you should understand the underlying reasons behind it. This will be your best defense to understand their logic and use that knowledge to question them directly about their behavior.
References-
Baldoni, J. (2013, March 4). Taking the Sting out of ‘Queen Bees’ Who May Be Out to Get You. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnbaldoni/2013/03/04/taking-the-sting-out-of-queen-bees-who-may-be-out-to-get-you/#26f28bd634e2
Cooper, M. (2016, June 23). Why Women (Sometimes) Don’t Help Other Women. Retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/06/queen-bee/488144/
sma6026 says
Your post is relatable, as well as accurate. When I read the gender and leadership chapter, I was also somewhat taken aback by some of the information and statistics that were given for women in leadership. The perspectives on this topic are obviously abundant. Being a woman in a leadership role myself, I was especially surprised by the idea that women are supposedly more likely to accept informal roles and be described more frequently as facilitators or organizers instead of leaders (Northouse, 2016).
I definitely feel as though we aren’t far off base with our feelings. Some of the information provided is a bit outdated, as there has been significant progress with this topic since 2016 when this textbook was published, and especially since the early 2000’s when most of this information was provided. It is safe to say that our country, government, and especially the corporate world are on a completely different track now with meeting gender equality.
References
Northouse, P.G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and practice (7th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.