Women Who Work with Women Managers and Peers

[iampat]

I have worked under several women managers thus far in my professional life. Most have been pretty good, other than the one who was quite the micromanager. I feel as though teamwork is one of the top priorities, no matter the sex of the supervisor.

Now that I am going to be working as a nurse, I am certain that my most immediate supervisors will be female. However, the CEOs/Presidents of most companies are men, so I still have that male influence in the workplace. I just figure that I'll be happy to have a job, regardless.

[moniker]

I think women are feared as managers for one reason: we still don't have a world where women are authority figures. Sure, we have "girl cops" and "girl doctors" but that's how they're seen...not as a profession but a profession first delineated by a gender, as if society feels the need to point out how unusual it is. Sure, they don't use "girl" but "female" or "woman," but the idea is the same: it's a person doing the job that has a gender you don't traditionally expect, so someone feels like they have to specifically point out the gender (female) because they don't want you to be caught off guard.

Part of this is because our society is adjusting, and in the mean time we will still have this throw back. Actresses are starting to be referred to as actors, just like how a murderer who happens to be female is no longer called a "murderess."

The other part is that we don't want women to be authority figures. I don't mean that women can't be authority figures but mom's bosom was (and if she's still alive, still is) the place of safety, magic, warmth, and everlasting love. We see women as lovers, not authoritarians, and it's scary to see a woman in a position of an authoritarian because that means there's no love in the world. Oh, sure, that's not what it really means but I suspect our brains fear it.

The other issue is that we know women have a tough time being treated equally, so we tend to emphasize traits we're trying to have taken seriously...in this case, authority. For this reason, a female manager/supervisor/boss can be more strict than her male counterpart...or at least that's the perception.

Finally, in order to fit into a male-dominated field, some women (many?) actually hate women. This is done to fit in, and is subconscious...sort of like how you can hang around a person who speaks differently than you do and pick up a few phrases you find yourself using even when that person isn't around. We are social creatures so we try to fit into groups and find ourselves behaving similarly. If men in the workplace treat women like trash, then a female trying to fit in will treat her fellow woman like trash.


So what can be done? Time...I suspect with time we'll realize women aren't different or weird, they are just as capable and we'll really realize that instead of just paying it lip service. Some of us already realize it, but society as a whole hasn't.

Originally Posted by Betsy

I'm a director of a large mental health program, and I supervise other managers. Our agency does very intensive work, and I'm really being challenged right now with a new manager who doesn't understand the nature of the intensity of the work.

Originally Posted by PoohsBigSister

We even wrote out step by step instructions on how to do every phase of the job..and the new girl is STILL asking me how to do it...over and over and over and over and over...i finally snapped today and told her to READ THE INSTRUCTION SHEET BEFORE COMING TO ASK PLEASE.... sigh...

In situations like this, I ask myself, "What would I do if this person wasn't like me?" I notice that I'll give people leeway if our first or last names are the same...more leeway than I would normally give, and that's wrong. In the same way, just because she's a fellow woman doesn't excuse her ignorance or inability to be suited for a position. She needs to know that her job is at stake and that you're willing to send her to a training seminar if needed but her performance needs to improve.

[JANE20/20]

I have worked women as supervisors for quite and my experience with them has not been the best....I have found them to be immature,jealous, vulgar, petty,deceitful,manipulative,untrustworthy, unprofessional and immoral individuals....

Example....one day I was sitting in a designated work area with 3 other co-workers...one of them was male...the two female co-workers were talking abot their husbands...and one of them said that's how I married my husband...gave him good head and proceeded to shake her head from side to side demonstrating the act.....after they left out I said to the male co-worker that's why I don't like to sit back here because they get too nasty and way too personal....I left the area but was right outside the area getting some logs...and I over heard the male co-worker telling the supervisor what I had said about the other 2 co-workers....and her response was (talking about me) she's not thinking about how nasty she was when she got pregnant...she has a son....now she was so ignorant!...instead of saying...well they really shouldn't have that type of conversation in here...or I'm going to have a talk with them....there was another situation in the same place of employment.....

Where some of the supervisor(s) and co-workers who were mostly females were going around spreading vicious rumors about how a well to do single man didn't chose me because I was uppity and celibate and couldn't prove it...so this man chose another co-woker and gave her a large amount of money and she had sex with him...that's right...and how I could have had my "pu**y s**ked and my a**h*le too" by that well to do man... if I wasn't so uppity that was also said by a female supervisor and how I missed out on all that money or how well he took care of the co-worker...and how ther were other female co-worker that were involved with this man also...and how he chose them and the sexual things that and they did with him...unfortunately these things were actually said.....most of these women are educated and licensed including me....these women females also were quite capable of spreading lies and did so without any reservations what so ever...as long as women continue to display behavior that is indicative of 15yr old girls ...absent of self respect..and little or no self-esteem....we are going to continue to have problems in the work place.......

[JANE20/20]

I just want to add that it really doesn't matter to me if the gossip about the well-to-do man was true or not....that is not my concern...the man is well known....but I never met him and I wasn't there when these events took place....I only know what was said....so I really don't know if it's true or not...my concern was and is the personal attacks that they made on my character....but when I talked to a lawyer...they basically told me that I couldn't do anything...and that people had a right to say what they want...and that defamation of character had to be proven by me........

Even if for instance.... these women made that whole senario about the well-to-do man up...even though he is single and rich and actually does exist....they could have done it simply to try to get to me because I am celibate and to make me feel inferior...(and I would not put it past them,...and which didn't work)....they don't have the right to say that that man was having sex with them...or paying out money or whatever....if he was not and if by some remote chance it was true...what does that say about them as mothers, wives, girlfriends, grandparents....what can they possibly be teaching their daughters....when they think like that??.....they didn't have the right to assassinate my character whether that story was true or not......