Bitch

Here is something that I have noticed in the last few positions I have held, in regards to women in positions of power, and that is this: that a woman, when the 'boss', is expected to make the time, and take the effort to foster deep interpersonal relationships with her staff, and if she does not actively do this, she is percieved as a bitch, and her employees will actively try to undermine her authority because of it. However, the whole dynamic changes when the 'boss' is a man: then, employees are the ones making the effort to create a relationship with him, and do not expect him to be making that same effort towards them. Instead, they make a concerted effort to make him notice them, and to win his favour.

I think that society looks and behaves differently toward men and women who hold power. When men make mistakes, they make mistakes, and when women make them, they get fired. And, I think that women are our own worst enemies when it comes to dealing with other women in power. Women undermine other women all the time, when it comes to workplace interaction. I listen, sometimes, to how women talk about other women, and I am apalled. We don't cheer each other on, but instead we run around behind each other's backs, picking away on whatever we can to cut that woman down...*to cut her back down to our own level*. And all it takes for that kind of behaviour to start is for a woman to be the boss, and not be absolutely perfect, every single day.
And I think that that sort of behaviour makes women who do wield power a little leery, because one false step and the next thing you know, everyone is commenting on the size of your ass and the cut of your hair, and feeling like they have the right to bring you down, and to judge you on anything they perceive as a flaw, even if it has nothing to do with the arena of professional life.