10/24/2011 @ 12:03PM 387,427 views



10/24/2011 @ 12:03PM 387,427 views

The 10 Worst Stereotypes About Powerful Women

By: Jenna Goudreau with Forbes Magazine

“I’ve been in this field for more than 30 years,” said co-anchor of Today Ann Curry. “I’ve heard a lot of stereotypes.”

Women continue climbing the rungs of power—building their ranks as heads of state, corporate leaders and media influencers—but their minority status means they still face harsh, limiting assessments based on their gender. “Women are being judged more, even by other women,” said Valerie Young, Ed.D., author of The Secret Thoughts of Successful Women. While male leaders are allowed to have complex personalities, powerful women are often summed up by hackneyed stereotypes that undermine them and their power. 

ForbesWoman tracked down many of the world’s most powerful women, from IMF chief Christine Lagarde to Jill Abramson of the New York Times, to ask: What is your least favorite stereotype about powerful women? Gender and career experts also weighed in on the dangerous notions about female success and how they seep into the collective subconscious. The following represent the 10 most hated and pervasive stereotypes.

No. 1: Ice Queen

Halley Bock, CEO of leadership and development training company Fierce, notes that the ruthless “ice queen” stereotype is rampant. Cultural depictions, like frigid magazine editor Miranda Priestly in The Devil Wears Prada (and her real-world counterpart Anna Wintour of Vogue) and back-stabbing boss Patty Hewes on Damages, paint successful women as unsympathetic power-mongers. It is, of course, a Catch-22. “A woman who shows emotion in the workplace is often cast as too fragile or unstable to lead,” Bock said. “A woman who shows no emotion and keeps it hyper-professional is icy and unfeminine. For many women, it can be a no-win situation.”

No. 2: Single and Lonely

Harvard lecturer Olivia Fox Cabane notes that the strong perception that powerful women are intimidating to men and will need to sacrifice their personal lives may stop women from going after power. Even those women who aren’t interested in marrying, face harsh judgments. Men get to be “bachelors” while women are reduced to “spinsters” and “old-maids.” In fact, when Janet Napolitano was nominated Secretary of Homeland Security, criticssaid her being single would allow her to “spend more time on the job.”

No. 3: Tough

The first female Executive Editor of The New York Times, Jill Abramson is anything but stereotypical. She had a hard-charging career as an investigative reporter at The Wall Street Journal and edited her way to the top of the Timesmasthead. She’s also a true-blood New Yorker and is writing a book about puppies. Despite her complexities, she must contend with being called “tough” and “brusque,” making the “she’s-tough stereotype” her least favorite. Said Abramson: “As an investigative reporter, I had tough standards and a formidable way of framing and reporting stories, but I don’t think of myself as a tough person.”

No. 4: Weak

Costa Rica President Laura Chinchilla, the country’s first female leader, told me that successful women face typecasting largely because society is still adjusting to women’s recent decision-making power. Chinchilla believes the most pervasive stereotype is that women are “weak,” a perception that may stem from women’s greater desire to build a consensus. “We understand success not as the result of just one person but as the result of a team,” shesaid. “[It’s a] different way of dealing with power [that] is misunderstood as a kind of weakness.”

No. 5: Masculine

The notion that powerful women must be, lead and look like a man really aggravates Christine Lagarde, the managing director of the InternationalMonetary Fund. In a video interview with FORBES she said–pumping her fist–she hates the idea that “you have to look like a businessman.” She admitted she sometimes feels the pressure to look the “right” way, but tries to resist not being “overly businesslike.”

No. 6: Conniving

When NBC’s Curry first started her career, she was told she couldn’t be a news reporter because women had “no news judgment.” Now, she’s at the top of her game and says the stereotype that most offends her is “the idea that a woman can only be successful because she somehow connived or engineered her rise–that she could not rise simply because she was too good to be denied.” She has experienced it herself, saying that she gets asked if she “forced” NBC to give her the anchor job or if there was a “backroom deal.” Curry told me, “I find it really annoying.”

No. 7: Emotional

Ellen Lubin-Sherman, executive coach and author of business guide The Essentials of Fabulous, believes one the most dangerous stereotypes female leaders will face is that they are prone to emotional outbursts. Despite Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s consistent cool-headed demeanor, when she teared up on the campaign trail, the mediapounced. Similarly, former Yahoo Chief Carol Bartzis frequently cited for her “salty language,” which has been used as evidence that she is “emotional” and a “loose cannon.”

No. 8: Angry

“Anger is a sign of status in men, but when women show anger they are viewed as less competent,” said Young. First Lady Michelle Obama was condemned as an “angry black woman” when she was campaigning for her husband in the 2008 presidential election. The Harvard-trained lawyer conscientiously softened her image and speeches in order to be more “likable,” becoming better known for her fashion and her unending support of her husband than for her stance on political issues.

No. 9: A Token

Women hold just 16% of corporate board seats. But instead of focusing on balancing things out, they are often devalued as being a “token” of diversity rather than having earned the post. Former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was often the only woman in the room, but her gender didn’t get her there. “While companies take their diversity goals seriously, they are not going to settle for less than the best person for the job,” said  Lynne Sarikas, director of the MBA career center at Northeastern University. “Women are hired because of their education and experience and what they can do for the company.”

No. 10: A Cheerleader

Billie Blair, president and CEO of Change Strategists, notes that prominent women who are considered feminine and warm may be dismissed as “cheerleaders” rather than the strong leaders that they are. When former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin was running for VP, Blair was amazed to hear a male client describe her as “a cheerleader, not a coach nor a quarterback.”

The 10 Worst Stereotypes About Powerful Men

Not long ago I delved into the common negative stereotypes that plague high-poweredbusinesswomen, who are still a rarity at the top of the corporate food chain. The descriptors–icy, emotional, masculine, single and lonely—hit a nerve. The piece is now one of my most-viewed, got picked up on several blogs and was shared by thousands.

I found a theme embedded in the comments: Successful men face harsh stereotypes too, and they are fed up. “What stereotypes do men at the top face? Is it not possible that, being at the peak, [everyone is] prone to being judged and labeled?” one reader asked. “Stereotypes about powerful men are not necessarily positive,” wrote another, and “are almost identical to the stereotypes about power.”

I decided to take a look. Entrepreneurs, business consultants and academics weighed in on the snap judgments and cruel adjectives hurled at successful men. The following represent the 10 worst.

Arrogant

Business owner and author Michael McIntyre has had this label lobbed at him several times, and believes arrogance and ego have become the top identifiers of powerful men. We see it the movies: “Bond, James Bond.” On TV: a la Don Draper circa 1964. And in the news: via billionaire Donald Trump and his presidential aspirations, or Rupert Murdoch’s media (world?) domination. There’s a fine line between confidence and arrogance, but in the portrayal of powerful men, it’s usually black and white.

Greedy

Consultant to J&J, Procter & Gamble and Toyota, and author of How Rich People Think, Steve Siebold believes “greedy” is one of the most pervasive male adjectives. Gordan Gekko may be the poster boy, but this stereotype now haunts almost any man with a lucrative job. Recent Wall Street examples–Bernie Madoff and his $50 billion scam or Goldman Sachs’ Lloyd Blankfeinand his $73 million 2007 salary–haven’t helped, either. If you’re male, successful and even tangentially deal with finances, you’ll likely face this judgment.

Womanizer

“It seems like all very successful and powerful men are labeled womanizers,” says executive producer and author Grant Cardone. “They probably are hopeless romantics looking for the same kind of experience in the bedroom and at home that they have achieved on the battlefield of business: Success, success and more success.”

Compulsive and Risky

Markets are overrun with testosterone-pumped, stupidly aggressive and short-term thinking men, right? You’ve seen the headlines: Too Much Testosterone On Wall Street?, What If Women Ran Wall Street?: Testosterone and Risk,Was Wall Street Drunk, Stupid or Evil?. Of course none of these mention that the best money manager in the nation, billionaire (and man, incidentally)Warren Buffett, is the polar opposite. He is methodical, relatively risk-averse and even-keeled. His favorite holding period, he says, is “forever.” Still, the stereotype prevails.

Overbearing

Powerful men don’t play well with others, or so the story goes. Steve Jobs was criticized for being difficult to deal with and pushing his employees to the brink. He had a reputation for demanding perfection. However, Cardone wonders if it was a fair characterization, asking if perhaps it was “just his quest and commitment to excellence and genius?”

Selfish

Brian Scudamore, founder and chief of $100 million junk removal service 1-800-GOT-JUNK?, was so wary of being typecast as the narcissistic, know-it-all boss that he went to great lengths to prove himself otherwise. On a mission for transparency and inclusiveness, he excluded closed-door offices from his headquarters, stationed himself in a cubicle and initiated daily “team huddles” to allow employees to voice ideas or concerns. “The main reason I haven’t fallen into the ‘ruthless exec’ category is because I’m motivated by meaning,” says Scudamore.

Insensitive

“One of the most prevalent and problematic stereotypes of male managers is that they care less about input from their employees and the welfare of the workforce in general than their female counterparts,” says Todd Thomas, a management professor at Northwood University in Michigan. In this year’sranking by The Great Place to Work Institute of the best companies to work for, which includes measures of employee satisfaction, the top 25 companies have male CEOs. “Some of these guys are getting it right,” Thomas says.

Workaholic

One astute male reader wrote me that he is fed up with the perception that successful men “are chronically absent fathers or husbands who are emotionally cut off from their families.” He believes the Ebenezer Scrooges are the exception vs. the rule. He’s onto something. A recent survey of 1000 men by researchers at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln revealed that American men value fatherhood more than having a successful career.

Brutally Competitive

Cardone, author of business books If You’re Not First, You’re Last and The Closer’s Survival Guide, points out that powerful men in high-stakes jobs are often characterized as brutal competitors in a zero sum game. Their purported savage instincts guarantee their personal gains at the expense of anything or anyone in their paths. As an example, he offers up retired basketball coach Bobby Knight who “was so committed to winning that it came across to the public as win at all cost.”

Lucky

Successful self-starter McIntyre says he’s faced assumptions that his family must have pulled strings for him or paid for him to go to an elite university, which led to his “lucky” and “charmed life.” In fact, he enlisted in the air force in order to put himself through Arkansas State University, and then worked his way up in the sales industry. Even icons like Bill Gates are characterized as having been in the right place at the right time, undercutting their agency. Researchers recently completed a nine-year study on the advantage of luck, concluding that everyone gets lucky but what you do with it–ROL, or return on luck–is what matters. “Getting a high ROL requires throwing yourself at the luck event with ferocious intensity, disrupting your life and not letting up,” wrote the study authors.

Which stereotypes did we miss? Why do these stereotypes persist? How can we change the conversation?

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