Preoccupations: Women and the Double Standard of Office Behavior
March 11, 2010 by admin
Filed under Career News and Advice
LAST fall, while working with corporate women across various industries, job levels and generations, an age-old issue re-emerged at a near-fever pitch. Women were obsessed about being labeled a “bitch,” and to a degree I hadn’t seen since the 1990s.
Katherine Streeter
The reason for their nervousness? Sure, they saw obnoxious women on reality TV shows. And they endured all the talk-show lampooning of Sarah Palin and Hillary Rodham Clinton during the 2008 presidential campaign. Yet one issue was even more personal: A recession was in full swing, and jobs were on the line.
As one woman put it, “Even in this day and age, a guy barks out an order and he is treated like someone who is in charge and a leader. But when a woman communicates in the exact same way, she’s immediately labeled assertive, dominating, aggressive and overbearing.”
Today, women make up half of the work force, and half of the enrollment at medical and law schools. With numbers like these, you’d think that women could finally relax and stop worrying about how they are being perceived at the office.
But women must still deal with a well-entrenched double standard when it comes to gender-acceptable behavior. Because of that, they often fall victim to self-defeating actions that can undercut their careers. They may assume a strident command-and-control approach or else turn passive — by clamming up, being indirect, failing to ask for what they want or need, and refusing to delegate junior-level tasks and responsibilities.
Consider one of my clients, whose male subordinate had botched a financial …
Read the original article at NYTimes