Women really can have it all, if only we behave perfectly within a specific set of emotional boundaries.

If you’ve worked a day in Corporate America, you know how cut-throat and intense the atmosphere can be. Do more with less. And do it faster. These are the kind of directives that when barked constantly at you can make a grown woman cry… in her cubicle. Fashion publicist and author Kelly Cutrone famously said, “If you have to cry, go outside,” but it turns out she was only partially correct in assuming that female sensitivity is not welcome in the workplace. “In the business world, women who are aggressive, assertive, and confident but who can turn these traits on and off, depending on the social circumstances, get more promotions than either men or other women,” according to a recent study by the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

That’s good news, I guess, especially if (like me) you’re a naturally confident woman. (I heard the words “intimidating” and “overzealous” a lot when I was in my teens and early 20′s. But never “bitchy,” though. That’s one thing I’m not.) I think I sit pretty much in the sweet spot, as far as Stanford’s behavioral recommendations are concerned. “The research suggests that for women to be successful they must simultaneously present themselves as self–confident and dominant while tempering these qualities with displays of communal characteristics.” In other words, if you want to get ahead at work, act the same way in the office that you would in front of your kids: be firm, but loving.

“Women may have a ways to go, but their ability to be flexible in how they behave is leading to some extraordinary results.  Some women are starting to go very high in the managerial ranks using this strategic approach,” concludes study co-author Olivia O’Neill of George Mason University.  If you accept the basic premise that women are natural nurturers (whether they have children or not) and you look at mothering as management, it’s not a big stretch to see how our default setting as women makes us perfect leaders.  The only problem is, I get the sense that we’re talking here about that most depressing rung on the career ladder: middle management.  The real question is, are women making it to the top?  Do we want to? Continue reading »

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Working moms still paid less than working dads

A report released Tuesday by the Government Accountability Office has some disturbing news for working women – and particularly for working moms. Some highlights:

Women’s progress into the ranks of management have been minimal over the last decade: In 2007, about 40 percent of all manager were women, up just one percentage point from 2000, whereas women comprised 49 percent of all non-management workers.

Although women now earn 80.2 cents for every dollar that men do – up from 62.3 cents in 1979 – the gap is far wider for female managers who have children. Managers who are moms earn about 79 cents for every dollar paid to men who are dads, a gap that hasn’t budged since at least 2000, according to the New York Times.

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Go back forty  years, and what do you have? Woodstock. The moon walk. And a generation of little girls who didn’t think they could be astronauts . . . because they were girls.

Canadian broadcasters are on an international search for a humble little girl interviewed as Neil Armstrong made his historic leap for mankind. Continue reading »

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