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3 Reasons You Don't Want WomenLeaders

This woman wants you to eat broccoli ­ you don't have to do it!

Victoria Pynchon , Contributor

Last week, FastCompany told us why we needwomen leaders in an article entitled HowWomen Lead Differently, And Why It Matters.

That all sounds pretty good, right?

There’s nothing genetically different aboutwomen that makes them good, better or best. It’stheir outsider status from the corporate normthat allows them to create their own worlds and

“ Long excluded from traditional power structures,women lead differently than men. Restricted accessto resources has made ingenuity a matter ofsurvival for many; frustration with impenetrableoligarchies and inherited bureaucracies has instilledthe value of transparency and creative, practicalthinking in others. Women have been forced tooperate from outside closed networks, which meansthey’ve had to adapt by creating their own worlds;they’ve learned to unite peripheral, disenfranchisedcommunities into collectively organized andgoverned microcosms.

She Negotiates

And changes everything...

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unite peripheral and disenfranchisedcommunities into collectively governedorganizations.

Couple that with the survival skills developed inresponse to a lack of access to resources andyou’ve got leaders who break forms, eliminatebureaucracy, promote the talented and demotethe brother­in­law with no imagination and fewskills whose well­being is at the center of theCEO’s marginally happy home life.

Don’t be fooled. There’s a reason women haven’traised themselves up into leadership positionsacross all industries anywhere near to 20%.

Here are the top three reasons why you’ll want todig your heels into the ground and continueresisting the emergence of a new class of leadersin American business.

You’d Have to Stop Doing Things the WayThey’ve Always Been Done

Your business, no matter where you are in thepecking order, was created by men with men inmind, including their their family “back up.” Doyou really want to change all that in the midst ofthe Great Recession that’s devolved into theGreat Jobless Recovery?

Listen. You’re comfortable. You know the powerplayers and the power games. The organizationhas not been doing great, but it has been doinggood enough.

Bring in outsiders and they’re bound to shakethings up, change at least some people’sperspective, and suggest new and innovativeprograms, all of which is going to make you feelless secure, marginalized even. It’s bad enoughthat you’ve had to give up openly treating all thewomen in your office as potential sex partners.

All that PC stuff is bound to make you even moreinhibited in the workplace. You’re an old dognow who’s learned enough new tricks. So, really,stay away from women leaders no matter howmany influential authorities tell you they’re goodfor business.

Broccoli’s good too but look where that gotMichelle Obama.

Women Will Favor Women

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Even though women’s history tells us otherwise,you shouldn’t be fooled. If women get into toomany positions of leadership, eventually they’refigure out what you’ve been doing for hundredsof years – they’ll begin to favor their own andwhere will that leave you?

Women haven’t tended to favor their own beforenow because it hasn’t yet looked like Americanbusiness is a good place for women to be.

Youngsters entering business and the professionshave been looking ahead at their peers for fortyor so years now and here’s what they see. Onewoman. Maybe two. They’re often childless andsometimes they have spouses who have taken onthe female role of child and house­tending in away that, let’s be frank, doesn’t float mostwomen’s boat.

Also, those women at the top look positivelyexhausted, frazzled, irritable and they still rarelyexercise the degree of power you’d think peoplewith their work ethic, qualifications anddedication to work should be wielding. Clearly,there’s only room for one or two of them at thetop. So you are not women’s competitors. Otherwomen are. This has created a mini­dog­eat­dogcorporate culture for women that’s mostlybeneath male radar.

You rightly worry that if you put more women inleadership, they’ll begin to behave pretty muchthe way men have for the past 200 or so years inbusiness. They’ll hire their sisters­in­law. Givemore breaks to women who fail to be absolutelybrilliant on a single occasion and start firing theguys who screw up repeatedly.

They won’t just hire more women, they’llpromote them. And that means your job is indanger.

So, really, what do you have to gain by puttingwomen in positions of power? Your bottom linemight not be the best, but you’re getting alongand going along. Things are fine just the way theyare. Let women continue to innovate in theirlittle one­person small businesses andoccasionally throw in a Marissa Mayer to showthat we’ll all post­gender now and you’ll be justfine.

9/22/2015 3 Reasons You Don't Want Women Leaders ­ Forbes

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Women are Compassionate and Giving;That Will Throw the Entire Commercial orProfessional Enterprise Out of Whack

Sure, you call the women leaders in yourbusiness or profession “bull dykes” (yes, you do)and lesser supposed insulting monikers, the leastof which is the favorite term of the unconsciouslyanti­woman male – a witch with a B.

Still, the fact that you carry these stereotypes inyour head is not your fault. Truly. Women carrythem too. We’ve all been acculturated to believethat women are compassionate, caring, saps forthe hard luck story. People who are afraid tobargain hard. Lawyers who do not, as onepartner told me early in my own legal career,“have the taste for blood.”

It doesn’t matter that the business andprofessional women you work with contravenethese stereotypes every working day, showingthemselves to be tough minded and brutallyhonest when necessary. No weak sisters, they.Still, you’ve already cordoned off your experienceof the women with whom you work so that theydo not upset your set of implicit, and oftenbenevolent, biases.

If you need someone who’s going to close thedeal, you naturally turn to a man, even thoughyou know half a dozen of those couldn’t close apaper bag, let alone a major merger with aformer competitor. The world is just too muchwith us, pressing all around us, imposingunreasonable deadlines and requirements on usto give us the time to judge people on their meritsrather than their gender, their Ivy Leaguecredentials, their family ties, their race,nationality, or sexual orientation.

You run at business­speed. And business­speedno longer permits deliberation. You know whatto expect from an anglo­saxon white guy. Whytrouble yourself with the pussy­whipped HRdepartment’s diversity and inclusivity goals?You’ve got a Fortune 50 division to run or anAmLaw 10 practice group to manage. You’re notstriving for perfection here. Just “good enough.”

So, don’t bring women into the power structureeven as the evidence continues to pour in aboutthe bottom­line benefits they bring to yourorganizations. It’s just too damn hard.