Smile, or don’t; gender stereotyping is all around us
I went to a fascinating presentation last week called “The Double Bind Dilemma” put on by the Chicago region of the Network of Executive Women. The evening’s two speakers were discussing why women still are so under-represented at the CEO level in Fortune 500 companies and, really, across corporate America.
The root of the problem dates back to the post-World War II era when the mores of modern corporate America were formed, contends Bridgett Brennan, CEO of Female Factor, a Chicago firm that consults on marketing to woman.
Men coming out of the military moved into corporate leadership then, bringing with them not only male qualities but also military devotion to achieving results with a minimum of discussion or debate.
As a result of all that, characteristics that are essentially male traits became associated with leaders. People, both men and women according to even recent surveys, say that male traits define a leader. That leaves women in that double bind of the evening’s title. If they try to act more male to get ahead, people call them too tough (and other derogatory terms we won’t repeat here). If they act like themselves, they’re not acting male enough to be considered leaders.
For all that to change, employers have to be aware of stereotypes and be constantly working to address them in a given company culture. Even small gender stereotypes should be addressed.
The evening’s other speaker, Laura Sabattini, director of the research department at Catalyst, which does research of gender stereotyping, mentioned that when she teaches sessions on stereotyping she starts with a simple exercise.
She asks male students to spend an entire day smiling constantly while she asks her female student to spend a day never smiling. The reason? Stereotypes say women should smile and men shouldn’t. So her smiling male students often get stopped and asked if they’re drunk while her female students get stopped and asked what’s wrong.
That emphasizes the insidiousness of stereotypes. We become so enmeshed and surrounded by them, we don’t see they’re there. We could all do a better job, not only with gender stereotypes, but with all stereotypes in our lives and in our businesses. Forget thinking outside the box, stop stereotyping the box and broaden your world view to become more effective at whatever you do.
Comments
I can't count the number of times men (and only men!) have stopped me on the street and told me to smile. It irritates me so much that I usually snap and make a smart-alecky retort. Then guess what they tell me to do. :)
Posted by: Anitra | September 9, 2008 12:25 PM
There's an interesting discussion of three new books on men (Guyland, Brocabulary and Hysterical Men) in Holly Brubach's latest piece for the NYT's Style Magazine (men's fall fashion issue). Stereotypes persist, but talking about gender issues in mixed company (or on blogs like this) will really help.
Brubach quotes Guyland's author, Michael Kimmel, with what I think is a great point: "From an early age, boys are taught to refrain from crying, to suppress their emotions, never to display vulnerability.... As a result, boys feel effeminate not only if they express their emotions, but even if they *feel* them."
From the marketing team perspective - I'm doing some research into what men bring to the table as they consider their women's markets. Must they act disinterested out of a sense that the women's market is clearly just a woman's thing? If you can get down to it in an open discussion, might men admit that even discussing women seems to "touchy feely" and emasculating? What IF their boyhoods were like what Kimmel describes...
It's a tough challenge for marketers, but fascinating to dig around in and the reward of being first to really deal with stereotypes at this level may mean a few more men feel free to smile.
Posted by: Andrea Learned | September 10, 2008 8:48 AM