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