Back to the tough boss point of view:

Here is how I saw female employees compared to males.

I think it is natural to want to be in control. The male employees tried to control the workplace with forcefulness while the females controlled with weakness.

The men wanted power and they made no excuse for it. I think being a woman, I was a special challenge for them. Some of the males wanted to own the business, but I could guard against that and I did. The men reveled in competition, but the women seemed to be ashamed of it. None of the women ever seemed to want to own the business. They seemed to have too many other responsibilities.

The women were much more successful at controlling, but they wanted so little, usually just more benefits or a small promotion, but they seemed to think they could acquire those things through weakness. They would say they wanted more beneifits because they "needed" them whereas the men would say they wanted raises because they "deserved" them.

Weakness was more difficult to deal with because I wanted to be compassionate, but weakness could jeopardize the whole company. Dealing with government involves meeting difficult deadlines. The women would often volunteer for assignments then not meet deadline. I'm sure they had good intentions, and they always had good excuses such as sick children or demanding mates, but still the deadline would pass.

The men were more likely to say the deadline was unrealistic to begin with and if they were assigned, the product might be inferior. They rarely volunteered for anything, but they usually came in on time with a decent product.

I understood women because I was one. I understood the conflicts between home life and business, but I had to be objective and I dealt better with male employees. I felt they were more honest in their efforts to control. They wanted power and made no excuses.

I think there are ways around all of those issues for women, but they have to recognize and accept them and I'm not sure there are very many women willing to make the sacrifices necessary to get through the glass ceiling.

That is probably not a popular point of view, but it might help someone to see the other side of the coin.

Sorry for the long post. Lots of thoughts on this one.

smile