The Corporate Woman: A new title for the new millennium. Many connotations are associated with this title, some positive and some not so positive. While the new corporate woman is glorified as being bold, smart, efficient, intelligent, organized, ambitious, and independent, it is also feared that she is too aggressive, overly ambitious, jealously competitive, and dangerously extroverted. Sometimes she is also accused of neglecting the family, of not being a good cook, of asking for too much freedom and of being self-centered. And yet, the question is: “Has women really changed?” Then the next question arises: “Have we ever known the woman well?” And above all, “How do these women feel about all this?” Our search starts somewhere here.
In the book titled “Why Men Don’t Listen and Why Women Can’t Read Maps” by Allan and Barbara Pease, there is a fascinating theory about why men and women are the way they are. The reason dates back to the stone age when life was simple and revolved around survival. The men were the breadwinners of the family, that is, the hunters, and they adhered to that role religiously, while the rest of the functions were assigned to women. While the men would spend their entire days hunting and securing food, the women would take care of everything else. Thus, women would be the cooks, cleaners, nurses, healers, supporters, nannies, protectors of children and the elderly, comforters and basically the administrators of the home and in effect of the entire tribe.
The theory further states that with evolution, although the nature of our work and the challenges to survival changed, basic instincts and traits remained the same. The men continued to focus on being the breadwinner with all the necessary instincts to survive in the harsh world of competition, while the women continued their multiple roles. According to this theory, this is why multitasking comes naturally to most women.
It’s not about which role is better or tougher, although traditionally, the role of men is propagated to be the toughest, as they have to operate in the outside and largely unknown world. While the role of women, as family and social administrators, has been given a much lower status. However, as I said, it is not about this little dispute. The main focus is to try to understand the multiple roles that women have been playing for centuries and their evolution compared to the corporate role of women today.
She was a juggler yesterday and she is a juggler today. But to her credit, the number of sticks in her juggling circle has increased substantially. And yet, she walks a tightrope, every day, relentlessly. She sometimes lost her balance, sometimes she was pushed, sometimes she reached perfect zen while other times she stared in disbelief at the mess around her. But she juggles, she does. Because that is the nature of her, that is what she is a woman.
Of course, some sticks in her juggling circle are bigger than others and some are forcibly made bigger by circumstances and people, and yet she still juggles.
Introducing the new age corporate woman: employee, employer, colleague, team member, breadwinner, problem solver, and yet wife, mother, home manager, daughter-in-law, friend and teacher, nurse, guide, full-time colleague and partner. , cleaner, cook and driver. Yes, when we look at the woman we call an independent and liberated career woman, we need to see that she still carries all of her traditional roles. And this is what makes the new age corporate woman so much more attractive, powerful and in many ways threatening to many. I would add to that – Vulnerable.
Today’s woman is finally living her full potential. It is said that every man has a feminine side and vice versa, every woman has a masculine side. Today’s woman has developed her full potential and lives both sides of her to the fullest.
Then comes the next question: “What are the effects of this emergence of the new powerful woman?”
The first thing that might come to mind is ‘imbalance?’ I do not blame him. As a society, we have been imbued with the idea of a certain pattern and system of society that advocates man as provider and dominant factor and woman as housewife and dependent. With the rise of the new woman this equation certainly changes. And although the woman has changed her role or rather has grown to encompass many more roles while retaining her original role, men are taking much longer to even accept the change, to let go, adapting to it. For men at home and at work the new woman is a surprise and a challenge.
If we can keep the perspective of the theory of evolution discussed above, we can see where the challenges of corporate women come from:
Domestic challenges:
1. When the man traditionally believes that the responsibility of running the home, raising children, social obligations and managing the family belongs exclusively to the woman, he does not believe in sharing the responsibilities of the home with his co-worker. Thus, the woman struggles to pack 3 times more than the man in the same 24 hours.
2. Since the wife is also earning and not dependent on her spouse for her material needs, the husband does not get the satisfaction of his role as ‘provider’ and this damages his masculinity, sometimes consciously and sometimes unconsciously. .
3. The man who has not consciously accepted the equal status of women, may be outwardly permissive with his wife’s employment status, but in many cases he suffers inwardly every time the wife brings home a salary, makes a decision about her cattle, comes home later than he does, expects him to share her domestic workload, or is unable to keep up with all the traditional family and social expectations.
4. In many families today, working women have to expend a large proportion of their energy just to appease the wounded egos of their counterparts in addition to the other multiple tasks.
Challenges in the workplace:
1. You are expected to do the same job as your male counterparts and in many places with lower wages just because of your gender.
2. You face constant threats of sexual harassment, which is an additional burden to your workload.
3. In many places male workers do not feel very comfortable being subordinate to a female boss or leader and women are treated unhealthily.
4. Many male colleagues do not take advantage of opportunities such as promotions for women, often attributing the reason for the promotion to her being a woman and thus disparaging her caliber and talent.
5. Men, who are generally good team players and subordinate to male co-workers, take it as an insult to work for a woman. Many make this evident in their daily work, making routine workdays difficult for women.
A view for the positive balance:
Today we talk about equality for both sexes and I know many men who strongly support and defend it. However, to truly accept and appreciate the new emerging woman requires men to have high self-esteem. No person can respect and appreciate the growth of another unless he knows himself well and has great self-respect and self-confidence.
The woman has already taken flight in the corporate world and is progressing rapidly. This leaves a greater responsibility on the parents of young children to help them cope with the changing reality of women. The women have been able to take on the expanded role in stride, and while they struggle, they more or less manage to do justice to most of their roles (with a few exceptions, of course!). The little boys of today, who will be the men of tomorrow, must be prepared for this new woman if healthier relationships are to be expected both at home and in the workplace.
Little girls also need to be groomed for a balanced life, making them aware of their unique gifts such as maternal instincts and providing care that can never be fully replaced by their male counterparts or higher wages.
The corporate woman is here to stay, but no one can survive or thrive alone. The law of nature demands balance and we all have to work together for it. If we can make changes in ourselves, that is most desirable, but as parents of the future generation, our responsibility is tremendous to save our loved ones from falling into the confusion of evolution.