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NYT Decrees, Women ‘Better
Managers’ than Men
In a reprise of Sonia Sotomayor’s “wise
Latina” comments, the New York Times has
settled the age-old debate about who makes better
office managers. “No Doubts: Women are Better
Managers” announces the July 26 headline.
To resolve the galloping debate, the NYT editors
summoned Carol Smith, senior vice president for the
Elle Group. In case you haven’t made the
acquaintance, the Elle Group woos new members with
the breathless claim it will “enrich your
life, pamper your body, nurture your spirit,
accelerate your business, and celebrate your
soul.” Sorry, no men allowed.
Ms. Smith is possessed of an uncanny, indeed
unfathomable acumen such that she is able to
dispense with the usual accoutrements of objective
inquiry, so no need to do an employee survey or
commission a national poll. It’s what they
call a woman’s intuition.
Here’s Ms. Smith at her most lucid:
“In my experience, female bosses tend to be
better managers, better advisers, mentors, rational
thinkers.” Why? Because “Men love to hear
themselves talk.”
(In my time hanging around the office water
cooler, female workers do far more conversing than
men. But who am I to doubt Ms. Smith’s firm
grasp on reality?)
Oh, and women are terrific list-makers.
“They will do their to-do list. They will
prioritize their to-do list. They will get through
their to-do list,” Smith compulsively
writes.
That’s right guys, forget that aspiration
of getting an MBA, all you need to do is pull out
pencil and paper and start making lists!
“Hands down women are better. There’s
no contest,” Smith zestfully concludes. And
lest she come across as a smug know-it-all, “I
want less of that self-righteousness,” she
avers.
I hate to differ with the erudite pronouncements
of Ms. Smith, but my experience has been of a
different ilk. I well recall a female co-worker who
whispered to me in the hallway, “I can’t
stand working for women!” Her female
supervisor micromanaged and publicly berated her
for every shortcoming, imagined and real, to the
point she had to go to the union with a harassment
complaint.
My personal you-won’t-believe-this story
involved an office where women outnumbered men
three to one. My supervisor, a female, had
hand-picked all the women. On good-hair days, she
would refer to her staff as “my dysfunctional
family.” On bad days, staff would hole up in
their offices, waiting for the storm to blow over.
She was eventually forced into retirement by senior
management. And yes, she was good at making
lists.
What do polls of female employees show?
Three years ago the publishing company Vault did
a Gender Issues in the Workplace Survey. The
results shocked many: Only 9% of women said they
preferred to work for a woman, while three times
that number, 28%, preferred a male boss. The
majority of respondents had no preference. One
woman explained, “Men are generally more
decisive, quicker, and focused in their decisions.
Women approach work with more emotion than
men.”
A similar survey by Harper’s Bazaar queried
500 English professional women working in finance,
media, and healthcare. A majority – 60% -- of
these high-status women stated their preference for
male bosses. Seven out of 10 admitted they would be
delighted to see a female colleague fail, and 86%
said they would flirt with a male co-worker if it
would boost their job prospects.
Maybe the Sisterhood isn’t all it’s
been made out to be.
When men of an earlier era engaged in such
unabashed buffoonery, they were derided as
chauvinist Neanderthals. So thank goodness we have
Carol Smith’s screwball humor to relieve the
workday tedium for the rest of us.
* * *
Carey
Roberts probes and lampoons political correctness.
His work has been published frequently in the
Washington Times, Townhall.com, LewRockwell.com,
ifeminists.net, Intellectual Conservative, and
elsewhere. He is a staff reporter for the New Media
Network. You can contact him at E-Mail
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