It's a man's world... but does it have to be?

Every once in a while I read an article about the state of women in leadership and I get depressed about how much further we need to go. Whether it's women in high level positions in business, university, professorships, whatever. A few months ago, there was an article in the NY Times which talks about the fact that, even though the female undergraduate population in sciences and engineering are increasing, the number of tenured female professors has remained stagnant. The general frustration that women scientists and engineers feel in trying to get ahead - having to work harder, prove themselves more, but skirting the edge of being called a bitch for being too ambitious.

Today, a new survey shows that men and women still prefer being bossed by a male versus female. The survey 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 find these descriptors interesting, since when you ask about males who are not fit to lead the words that usually come up are "unprofessional," "unproductive" and the like. At least in my experience.

I do admit that when a male colleague is being whiny or annoying, I usually say he is "acting like a girl." Maybe I should put that away. The funny thing is, at my job, all the way up the chain of command to the Office Director, the managers are all female, save one. And that one, well, he's not what I would call much of a leader in comparison to the others.

It's hard. I happen to be in a career path where, as a female, I have always been the minority. Yet I work in a place where a great majority of the managers are female. What does that say? It's all still progressing. The majority of people surveyed had no preference of male or female. And there is still hope despite the closing comment of the article:

“As liberated as I consider myself to be, I think I’d have a problem taking orders from a woman.”