Because She’s a Woman: Glass Ceilings, Female Politicians, and Hate Speech

[GOD]

Absolutely, I hear what you are saying, and, you know as well as I do, we are dealing with the culture/perception of civilisation/people, over many many years........

"Of male respondents, 41 percent said men are more likely to be good leaders, and 33 percent of women agreed. And three out of four women who expressed a preference said they would rather work for a man than a woman.

The survey, conducted early this year, found a bonanza of stereotypes among those polled, with many using the optional comment section to label women "moody," "bitchy," "gossipy" and "emotional." The most popular term for woman, used 347 times, was "catty."

I think they should have conveyed the positive attributes why many men and women prefer male bosses. Its these positive attributes that need to be acquired in order to be an effective leader and therefore successful manager. Men tend to depersonalise the situation. Men prefer depersonalised managers. Women I would also assume prefer depersonalised managers as they can personalise with collegues.

There are still few women in the corner office today, and the numbers appear to be declining. Our survey sheds light on one obstacle blocking women from the boardroom: negative attitudes about women leaders — attitudes women themselves still harbor.
“One cannot live in a sexist society without absorbing some of those messages, which make women feel worse about themselves and suspicious of other women," said Janet Lever, a professor of sociology at California State University in Los Angeles, who helped conceive the survey. "The enemy is omnipresent cultural messages, not women themselves."

This continual line of reasoning is wearing thin to be honest. Women have greater opportunity of variety in life, they can bear children and so forth. There will never be an equal number of women in boardrooms on this basis alone. Secondly, a boardroom indicates a large scale business, large scale businesses are PROCESS driven. Process favours NT type thinkers, More males are NT's. (If more women are in self employed businesses then why is that not something to be an equal offset? smaller businesses offer greater opportunities for creative outlet and lifestyle views than multinational travel and process driven board reports with excessive detail of financial numbers). And thirdly, men are simply more competitive and sustain this throughout life as a natural instinct.

There are long-established attributes that are assigned to men and women, says Madeline E. Heilman, an expert on workplace *** bias and professor of psychology at New York University. Women take care of others and nurture, while men are seen as taking charge and being assertive. The problem is, she says, when we map these attributes onto the workplace the male attributes are much more sought after.

Thats just the way it is, thats nature. Business isn't a social gathering it is a scouting party hunting for big game, and possibly going to war with other tribes. The leaders of these groups need to command respect and be determined. The group wants to be led and not consulted, consultation is often a sign of weakness.

Even in real life, most women when they talk of a guy they will often remark about being positive determined and so forth. Men will talk about women often as being kind caring and so forth. Its not biase its not sexist its just the way people naturally think.

“I call this the lack of fit,” she explains, because the perceived attributes of women don’t fit the leadership mold. “When women succeed in areas they’re not supposed to they are disapproved of greatly, by everyone, men and women.”

I often wonder if the women that make all these claims actually realise that they are probably NT women, and are simply different to most other women? I think they are confusing gender (as an obvious visual indicator) with differences in thought and orientation processes.

Women seem to do very well in IT, I have seen absolute zero sexism there. (Although IT workers could well be asexual , couldn't resist)

Indeed, our survey found that about 33 percent of men and women would rather work for a man, while about 13 percent would prefer working for a woman. (The remaining 54 percent had no preference.)
And when asked who would be more likely to lead effectively, males were preferred by more than a 2-1 margin by both men and women — even though women got high marks for being problem solvers and providing more supportive work environments.

As stated, it about depersonalisation once again, it makes harder decisions easier to implement and inflicts less pain on the receiver.

Will men and women ever see beyond these ingrained beliefs and accept women as conductors on the career express? It’s all about preconceived notions of the leader image, says Claire Babrowski, the former CEO of RadioShack. When people close their eyes and visualize the top dogs sitting around the corporate table, she explains, “We picture men in leadership roles. As a woman you already have this hurdle to overcome.”

I actually don't believe this, all large companies were once small companies, given that women have been in the workforce for a reasonable period of time now we should be seeing the appearance of larger SME's headed by women and a unstoppable rise to succeeding at board level.

I think various "sociologists" should survey women founded larger organisations (that they still have some active input into) and see the gender balance. Would have to be on gender neutral businesses (products/services) though.

You know that I could quite easily raise my family to discriminate/denigrate cats...if I'm lucky enough to hang around a few generations, I can possibly have quite an influence on my children, my children's children, and their offspring...on how they perceive cats.

...and you know I don't need to be out weilding an axe over the cat's head to be effective in getting my message through. Subtle......

Times that by 5 billion, mix it through every country/culture through the world...imagine being a cat!

Possibly, but no matter what you think of cats, and how you treat them, they will never be dogs.

[GOD]

Someone might find these of interest too:

Single Minded Women - women's career - Male Bosses vs. Female Bosses

Excerpt:

"The key is to approach your female boss as an individual and not get bogged down by stereotypes, experts say. One human resources manager put it this way: “Deal with her as a boss—the way you'd deal with any boss. Make an attempt to have a good working relationship with her. No one's perfect. Some men are great bosses, while others stink. It's the same with women.”

As more women move up the corporate ranks and employees get used to having women bosses, these stereotypes and preferences should even out, experts say, so that both male and female supervisors can be judged by their competence and not through gender-biased lenses. Growing pains are a part of progress—and the workplace is no different."

....and this is a beaut:

Who Make Better Bosses -- Women or Men? | Reproductive Justice and Gender | AlterNet

Excerpt:

"The Pew Research Center's latest survey on gender and leadership reveals that the public thinks women have more desirable leadership traits than men. The survey asked its respondents -- 2,250 adults -- to rate women and men on eight characteristics considered important in leadership. Women smashed men in five of the categories -- honesty, intelligence, compassion, outgoing personality, creativity -- and tied men in two: hard work and ambition. The only category in which men showed an edge was decisiveness.

Respondents also ranked women higher in job performance skills including working out compromises, keeping government honest, representing constituents' interests and standing up for their beliefs. The public also said women are better at dealing with social issues but not as good at dealing with crime/public safety or national security/defense.

Interestingly, the survey showed that even though respondents clearly favored women over men on the majority of leadership traits, when asked who make better leaders, 69 percent called it a draw. Twenty-one percent said men make better leaders; only 6 percent said women do."



and........."Why the paradox in public perception? How can three categories -- "decisive" and good on crime and defense -- overshadow the long list of traits that women lead in, often by overwhelming margins.

"[W]omen emerge from this survey a bit like a sports team that racks up better statistics but still loses the game," write the report's authors."

This source you quote is flawed, simply because of this statement

The next most important leadership trait, in the public’s view, is intelligence. Here again, women outperform men: 38% of respondents say women are smarter than men, while just 14% say men are smarter, and the remainder say there’s no difference between the sexes.

Seriously such a sweeping generalisation as to intelligence is not borne out by any academic or aptitude tests.

Furthermore, the whole survey seems orientated towards political success (Public office); people who vote for political parties are not the same people that choose managers. Many people think Santa Claws is great because he gives presents at Christmas, but would you make him treasurer for your listed company?

In fact, if we looked at the whole board makeup we'd see a distinct lack of entrepreneurial ability. Why? Anybody with a driving force and ambition ducks out and starts up their own company. Women often duck out and have a family. Quite possibly the question is more about men ending up in board positions because they do not have enough interests outside of a mono life of work.

I read a really interesting article on test scores of boys and girls which showed that the bell shaped distribution of girls was less dispersed than the guys. Guys had higher percentages of "brilliant" IQ's and more extremely low IQ's. (I read all this and it seem apparent that.. Males it seems through the double ** carry more of a wild card hand; they through sexual selection have the ability to more rapidly help populations migrate to environmental fit). And what does this have to do with board rooms?... well, board rooms are filled with the smallest nth degree of ability... just possibly these are the genetically enabled portion of that dispersed bell shaped distribution.

[Louie]

Your thoughts/perceptions are quite interesting.

We are one humankind, but with many differences, what is at the heart of the matter, (to me), is not our differences, but the perceptions of each others differences. And opportunity.

"The mysteries of creation are marvellous. When two people meet at anytime or place, the differences between them are patent.

Their forms and manners are different. They differ in their cleverness and intelligence. Their opinions also vary.

Without understanding what underlies these differences, the materialistic thinker emphasises the differences.

Today, a growing number of intellectuals, ignoring the unity that underlies the diversity, propagate the cult of difference. The good persons who realise the unity behind the apparent diversity are dwindling in numbers from day to day.

This is highly unfortunate."

(Sri Sathya Sai Baba)