Women continue climbing the rungs of power\u2014building their ranks as heads of state, corporate leaders and media influencers\u2014but their minority status means they still face harsh, limiting assessments based on their gender. \u201cWomen are being judged more, even by other women,\u201d said Valerie Young, Ed.D., author of The Secret Thoughts of Successful Women. While male leaders are allowed to have complex personalities, powerful women are often summed up by hackneyed stereotypes that undermine them and their power.<\/p>\n
ForbesWoman tracked down many of the world\u2019s most powerful women, from IMF chief Christine Lagarde to Jill Abramson of the New York Times, to ask: What is your least favorite stereotype about powerful women? Gender and career experts also weighed in on the dangerous notions about female success and how they seep into the collective subconscious. The following represent the 10 most hated and pervasive stereotypes.<\/p>\n
I find these stereotypes old school, even though I still think most are absurd for even existing at all. Would you consider Barbara Walters lonely, weak and emotional? I wouldn\u2019t. I think she has an exciting and interesting life. Even at her age, she still wants to work!<\/strong><\/p>\n No. 1: Ice Queen<\/strong> No. 2: Single and Lonely<\/strong> No. 3: Tough<\/strong> No. 4: Weak<\/strong> No. 5: Masculine<\/strong> No. 6: Conniving<\/strong> No. 7: Emotional<\/strong> No. 8: Angry<\/strong> No. 9: A Token<\/strong> No. 10: A Cheerleader<\/strong> http:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/jennagoudreau\/2011\/10\/24\/worst-stereotypes-powerful-women-christine-lagarde-hillary-clinton Women continue climbing the rungs of power\u2014building their ranks as heads of state, corporate leaders and media influencers\u2014but their minority<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":72448,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"magazineBlocksPostFeaturedMedia":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u-113x150.jpg","medium":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","medium_large":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","large":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","1536x1536":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","2048x2048":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-highlighted-post":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-featured-post-medium":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-featured-post-small":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u-113x90.jpg","colormag-featured-image":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-default-news":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u-113x150.jpg","colormag-featured-image-large":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-elementor-block-extra-large-thumbnail":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-elementor-grid-large-thumbnail":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-elementor-grid-small-thumbnail":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-elementor-grid-medium-large-thumbnail":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg"},"magazineBlocksPostAuthor":{"name":"njaiyo","avatar":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/255e26fc52858afad234c2c1d44c946e16c565fd0ef5615b0c1caa793897759d?s=96&d=mm&r=g"},"magazineBlocksPostCommentsNumber":"0","magazineBlocksPostExcerpt":"Women continue climbing the rungs of power\u2014building their ranks as heads of state, corporate leaders and media influencers\u2014but their minority","magazineBlocksPostCategories":[],"magazineBlocksPostViewCount":146,"magazineBlocksPostReadTime":6,"magazine_blocks_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg",113,170,false],"medium":["https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg",113,170,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u-113x150.jpg",113,150,true]},"magazine_blocks_author":{"display_name":"njaiyo","author_link":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/?author=6"},"magazine_blocks_comment":0,"magazine_blocks_author_image":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/255e26fc52858afad234c2c1d44c946e16c565fd0ef5615b0c1caa793897759d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","magazine_blocks_category":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10897"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10897\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/72448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nHalley Bock, CEO of leadership and development training company Fierce, notes that the ruthless \u201cice queen\u201d stereotype is rampant. Cultural depictions, like frigid magazine editor Miranda Priestly in The Devil Wears Prada (and her real-world counterpart Anna Wintour of Vogue) and back-stabbing boss Patty Hewes on Damages, paint successful women as unsympathetic power-mongers. It is, of course, a Catch-22. \u201cA woman who shows emotion in the workplace is often cast as too fragile or unstable to lead,\u201d Bock said. \u201cA woman who shows no emotion and keeps it hyper-professional is icy and unfeminine. For many women, it can be a no-win situation.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nHarvard lecturer Olivia Fox Cabane notes that the strong perception that powerful women are intimidating to men and will need to sacrifice their personal lives may stop women from going after power. Even those women who aren\u2019t interested in marrying, face harsh judgments. Men get to be \u201cbachelors\u201d while women are reduced to \u201cspinsters\u201d and \u201cold-maids.\u201d In fact, when Janet Napolitano was nominated Secretary of Homeland Security, critics said her being single would allow her to \u201cspend more time on the job.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nThe first female Executive Editor of The New York Times, Jill Abramson is anything but stereotypical. She had a hard-charging career as an investigative reporter at The Wall Street Journal and edited her way to the top of the Times masthead. She\u2019s also a true-blood New Yorker and is writing a book about puppies. Despite her complexities, she must contend with being called \u201ctough\u201d and \u201cbrusque,\u201d making the \u201cshe\u2019s-tough stereotype\u201d her least favorite. Said Abramson: \u201cAs an investigative reporter, I had tough standards and a formidable way of framing and reporting stories, but I don\u2019t think of myself as a tough person.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nCosta Rica President Laura Chinchilla, the country\u2019s first female leader, told me that successful women face typecasting largely because society is still adjusting to women\u2019s recent decision-making power. Chinchilla believes the most pervasive stereotype is that women are \u201cweak,\u201d a perception that may stem from women\u2019s greater desire to build a consensus. \u201cWe understand success not as the result of just one person but as the result of a team,\u201d she said. \u201c[It\u2019s a] different way of dealing with power [that] is misunderstood as a kind of weakness.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nThe notion that powerful women must be, lead and look like a man really aggravates Christine Lagarde, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund. In a video interview with FORBES she said\u2013pumping her fist\u2013she hates the idea that \u201cyou have to look like a businessman.\u201d She admitted she sometimes feels the pressure to look the \u201cright\u201d way, but tries to resist not being \u201coverly businesslike.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nWhen NBC\u2019s Curry first started her career, she was told she couldn\u2019t be a news reporter because women had \u201cno news judgment.\u201d Now, she\u2019s at the top of her game and says the stereotype that most offends her is \u201cthe idea that a woman can only be successful because she somehow connived or engineered her rise\u2013that she could not rise simply because she was too good to be denied.\u201d She has experienced it herself, saying that she gets asked if she \u201cforced\u201d NBC to give her the anchor job or if there was a \u201cbackroom deal.\u201d Curry told me, \u201cI find it really annoying.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nEllen Lubin-Sherman, executive coach and author of business category_ide The Essentials of Fabulous, believes one the most dangerous stereotypes female leaders will face is that they are prone to emotional outbursts. Despite Secretary of State Hillary Clinton\u2019s consistent cool-headed demeanor, when she teared up on the campaign trail, the media pounced. Similarly, former Yahoo Chief Carol Bartz is frequently cited for her \u201csalty language,\u201d which has been used as evidence that she is \u201cemotional\u201d and a \u201cloose cannon.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\u201cAnger is a sign of status in men, but when women show anger they are viewed as less competent,\u201d said Young. First Lady Michelle Obama was condemned as an \u201cangry black woman\u201d when she was campaigning for her husband in the 2008 presidential election. The Harvard-trained lawyer conscientiously softened her image and speeches in order to be more \u201clikable,\u201d becoming better known for her fashion and her unending support of her husband than for her stance on political issues.<\/p>\n
\nWomen hold just 16% of corporate board seats. But instead of focusing on balancing things out, they are often devalued as being a \u201ctoken\u201d of diversity rather than having earned the post. Former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was often the only woman in the room, but her gender didn\u2019t get her there. \u201cWhile companies take their diversity goals seriously, they are not going to settle for less than the best person for the job, said Lynne Sarikas, director of the MBA career center at Northeastern University. \u201cWomen are hired because of their education and experience and what they can do for the company.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nBillie Blair, president and CEO of Change Strategists, notes that prominent women who are considered feminine and warm may be dismissed as \u201ccheerleaders\u201d rather than the strong leaders that they are. When former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin was running for VP, Blair was amazed to hear a male client describe her as \u201ca cheerleader, not a coach nor a quarterback.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"