Reuters carries a story this morning about a new study about the glass ceiling in the workplace. The article summarizes the study findings thusly: "Women are their own workplace enemies when it comes to cracking the glass ceiling." Women are less likely to promote themselves or their accomplishments, and women managers are seen as being less supportive of female staffers as male managers--the so-called "pull up the ladder" phenomenon in which those who have achieved hard-won success work against the achievements of those who come after them.
My own workplace experiences don't gel with the study's findings, in part because (1) I am a loudmouth who has always been happy to tout my credentials when they are relevant, and (2) almost all of my supervisors are men, and more than half of my peers are women, so I haven't had the occasion to feel especially undermined by female bosses. But it's not inconsistent with stories floating around in the conversational out there, and it can be pretty crazy making when it happens to you. One friend who got her sole poor job review from a woman boss went back and forth between "Is it me? Am I bad at my job? Am I doing something wrong?" and "Is she just trying to sabotage me because she wants to remain the Top Girl?" Both possibilities would create career obstacles for my friend, but driving herself nuts trying to figure out where she stood seriously messed with her self-confidence and made it difficult for her to know what to do with the criticism she'd received.
Half of the problem described in this article can be addressed on an individual level by becoming more assertive in one's strategic bragging. That's not easy, but it's possible, and largely within one's own control. But as for the phenomenon of women hindering the careers of other women -- and I don't have any claim as to how frequently this happens, only that I believe anecdotally that it does -- what's to be done about that?
Related: Female Science Professor has asked a couple of interesting questions about this phenomenon, at least as it relates to the fields of academic science. Do women have a particular responsibility to mentor women? When a boss undermines or hinders a female employee's efforts, is it worse if that boss is also a woman?
8.20.2008
Pull Up The Ladder Behind You
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4 comments:
I think its worse, just because I expect MORE from women. I think there are some generational issues at work in this respect as well. Great post, this needs to be talked about more.
Sadly, this post is spot-on, at least in my small and highly competitive academic community. Can't tell you how many times I've seen fellow twenty-somethings lose self-confidence (and a raise, and a promotion) thanks to the strange maneuverings of an otherwise competent female boss.
What's up with that, strong female mentors?!
I agree, I do think there are some generational issues. I feel that the generation of women before me are resentful because my generation (30+) are getting more from doing less and suffering less. I do think that women should mentor each other and I do think they have a particular responsibility to do so. It would be nice if gender didn't matter and I've certainly had male mentors, but women mentors have made a bigger impact on my career and life, perhaps because they just understood my situation better?
I think I read somewhere that since women (at least of the hetero variety) are socialized in such a way to find and keep a man, they then apply this to jobs. Hence the backstabbing, etc. Conversely women (of the queer variety) are more likely to act as mentors for their female peers. Wish I could give you the reference, but alas I don't remember it anymore. And while, I too am a loudmouth about my skills, I have also been somewhat the victim (and I do hate being a victim) of female sabotage on more than one occasion...
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