Do women really support each other at work

we have all heard at least once in our

lives

things like women stand up for each

other empowered women

empower women there is a special place

in hell for women who don’t support

other women we have all seen those posts

that women share

all the time on their social media that

show how feminist they are

and how much they’re ready to fight for

each other all the women

empowerment speeches and ads even girls

conversations at the bar’s restrooms

about how we should stick together

and i’m here for you and all those

things all this makes you think

women are each other’s biggest fans

right this is at least what i thought

for a long period of my life

but are they really i actually started

developing interests for this topic in

the past couple of years

when i started noticing that most of the

times in which i was hurt by someone

close to me

either personally or professionally was

by other women

and whenever i looked around me i

noticed that it wasn’t the case

just for me most of the conflicts that

women around me encountered

were with other females and most of

those conflicts

arise when men or professional success

are included in the equation

so that made me wonder where does this

come from

and is it even true or was it just my

personal experience

so in this presentation i want to talk

about the female female relationship

in the workplace and more specifically

the relationship between female

subordinates and their female bosses

so to better understand that it’s

crucial to first know the overall

context

of that relationship and to learn a

little bit more about the situation of

women in the workplace today

and why this relationship is important

so in 2015 fewer large companies were

run by women

than by men named joan can you believe

that

although there is no it is no longer the

case women are unfortunately still

underrepresented in higher level

management positions

with only 6.2 percent of female leaders

in the top 200 companies and the fortune

500

while this is a very interesting

percentage we would like to know

the reasons behind this

underrepresentation so let’s see

what those reasons might be is it the

underrepresentation

of women in the workplace actually no

in 2018 women accounted for 46.9

of the total labor force compared to

33.9 percent

in 1950 and 43.3 percent

and 1970 so now

this cannot be the reason uh behind the

underrepresentation

so could it be that women are

underperformers

again no a study done in 2018 had found

that firms with female ceos or cfos have

produced superior stock price

performance compared to the market

average the study has also

shown that these same females have

outperformed their male peers on

different aspects

in fact there is enough meta-analytic

evidence suggesting that women tend to

be rated as better leaders than men

so again this is not a valid reason

the actual reason behind this

underrepresentation

is glass ceiling so glass ceiling

according to the us

department of labor is defined as those

artificial barriers

based on an attitudinal or

organizational bias

that prevent qualified individuals from

advancing upward in their organization

into management level positions many of

the studies

conducted on the glass ceiling for women

have shown that

gender stereotypes and biases are the

most influential factors that hinder

women from

upward career advancements surprisingly

those stereotypes are not only held by

males

but by females as well so women

actually do have vices towards their own

gender

which can show in their relationships

with other women in the workplace

so let’s explore what are those biases

how are they expressed and how do they

contribute to the glass ceiling for

women

so both female bosses and female

superintendents hurt each other

and hinder each other’s career

advancements in different ways

let’s first see is from the female

boss’s perspective

so the first thing we have is the fear

of affirmative action

research has shown that female leaders

who engage in diversity value and

behaviors by helping and supporting

other

women are penalized with worse

performance ratings

while male leaders who engage in those

same behaviors are not

penalized for doing so that said female

supervisors

avoid helping or mentoring other females

in order to

increase the chances of their own career

success

and they eventually can engage in what

we call the queen bee syndrome

so the queen v syndrome is when a woman

who has made it to the top

finds a reason not to help other women

aspiring to break through the glass

ceiling

and this is a very common syndrome that

female bosses develop throughout their

professional journey

and that weakens their relationship with

their female subordinate

let’s now see from the female suburban

perspective

the first thing that they do to hinder

their female boss’s success

is lower ratings research has shown that

women are more likely to unfavorably

rate their female supervisors than men

they are also more likely to prefer mail

buses they actually admitted that they

have more

conflicts with female buses than with

male buses

so i thought that was really interesting

and that’s where i got the idea of the

current research that i’m working on

which i call reverse queen bee syndrome

why do female subordinates prefer male

bosses over female bosses

it is it’s a study that explores the

reasons

underlying this preference i have

interviewed 18 female subordinates and

ask them questions about their

experience with their female boss

and their perception on their female

boss and also on their female

on their male bus so most participants

dislike their female bosses

who they rated higher on attributes that

are traditionally viewed as masculine

such as authority and focus on material

success

the same participants didn’t have a

problem with a man boss who had high

score on those same characteristics

on the other hand participants expressed

dislike for female bosses

who they rated lower on understanding or

compassion and flexibility this can be

explained by the biased expectations

that the subordinates might have on both

genders

so when the female boss breaks those

expectations

the relationship is negatively affected

for example a single mom

employee would expect the female boss to

be more understanding

and take her family situation into

consideration when it comes to work

schedule

she wouldn’t necessarily have the same

expectations from her mailbox

another interesting finding of this

research is related to charisma so the

big majority of participants didn’t

think that the female bosses that they

had the best experience with

was charismatic while most of them

thought that their male boss was

there is one participant who said from

my own experience

i had three male managers and all of

them were charismatic

well i had three females and none of

them was charismatic

there is one participant who said from

my own experience i had three male

managers

and all of them were charismatic while i

had three females

and none of them was charismatic the

same participants added when she was

asked about her definition of charisma

it’s a whole package of personal and

professional attributes

you can find someone who has bad

attributes but who’s charismatic

and vice versa thinking that male bosses

are more charismatic than female

bosses can be explained by the

participants definition of charisma

which is often related to attributes

that are traditionally viewed as

masculine

such as assertive controlling or

dominance

which are characteristic which are also

characteristics that women can be

punished for

having again because they are not

relevant to what we expect

from them as women one of the other

reasons why

female subordinates engage in behaviors

that hinder

their female boss’s career advancement

is self-esteem

so research has shown that women tend to

disparage other successful women

because they see them as a threat to

their own perceived

competence the same study has shown that

women

may act hostilely in the presence of

more successful women

to protect their own self-esteem

women can identify more with other women

so it is easier for them to compare

themselves with other women other rather

than with other males

so that creates a sort of an unhealthy

competition that can end up in that

hostility and

aggression finally

mentoring studies have revealed that

women prefer to network with

high-ranking male

males rather than female associates when

they are seeking

instrumental career advice or when they

are

considering risk risky ventures and this

can be explained

by the fact that those women are more

familiar with men

higher positions which creates a bias

in their mind that if they want to climb

the hierarchy

they need to network with men rather

than with females

a negative relationship between female

subordinates and female bosses

can have negative implications on both

and the most dangerous thing about

it is that most of women are not aware

of it especially with all the movement

that we hear about

women standing up for each other and

helping each other succeed

supporting each other is not just about

giving each other compliments or telling

each other

you can do it i think there are many

things us women can do to move

away from hindering each other’s success

to actually encourage

each other and push each other forward

in the workplace

my first suggestion is developing more

mentorship

female bosses should make it a priority

to mentor their female subworthiness

and push their ambition to for career

advancements

on the other hand female subordinates

should seek that mentorship from their

female bosses

rather than always seeking it from a man

trusting each other is a crucial step to

grow together

the second suggestion is understanding

that my boss’s success doesn’t diminish

mine

instead of viewing your boss’s success

as a threat to your own

self-esteem look at it as is inspiring

as something that you can look up to and

learn from in order to reach your own

success

be aware of your biases we all have

biases that we are not aware of working

on those biases and not having

stereotypical gender-based expectations

from our female co-worker boss or

subordinate

can help us better understand each other

and better work with each other

which can help us all grow and succeed

learn to forgive nobody is perfect

including your female boss

instead of focusing on the one negative

attribute that your female boss has

and build your whole perception based on

it it would be more beneficial for both

of you

if you focus on everything she does

right

thank you