Any of you who read my blogs regularly know that I am always fascinated and educated by gender issues at work. How do we go from the loving mom or dad to high achieving executive at work without allowing our gendered culture influence us in some way?
Lately, I have been reading up again on the concept of power and how males and females use power. I subscribe to the general reality that females and males view power differently and while this isn't a bad thing, it could ultimately allow for discord. Although gendered ideology has made huge strides over the decades I think we have a long way to go. Here is an example of a viewpoint of power from two very different people. The first is my often quoted book What Men Don't Tell Women About Business. Once again, Christopher Flett rises to occasion listing his fundamental expectations from women when he is doing business with them. At the top of the list (that's right, ladies #1) was "at some point in the relationship, she will try to be cute to get something she wants (you call it feminine charm, we call it an inability to negotiate properly)." What he adds at the end of his exhaustive list is when none of these expectations happen, men immediately take you out of the "one of those girls" group.
Before I anger the women (and possible reformed Alpha Males out there), allow me to give you another excerpt from a dramatic rhetorical feminist scholar from the University of Colorado. Dr. Foss, along with her feminist colleagues, wrote a groundbreaking paper around the concept of "reciprocal empowerment". Her concept was an offering of a different way to look at power other than the assumed "patriarchal" model we see in business and at home, or a top-down construct. Dr. Foss suggests a reciprocal engagment-so when you have an urge to pounce, you relent and rethink the use of that patriarchal power. To further illuminate this, think of a paradigm that includes "both internal and external" and involves both the process of "gaining power and the results that are produced by having power" (my emphasis). This method is both an "invitation and persuasion" i.e. not looking cute to get what you want.
When have you been in work situations where you have seen the display, need and reach for power differ in gender? I have noticed even among like colleagues how woman's view of power, how to get it vs a male's version can be very different. However, I have used reciprocal power in many instances where I may have engaged in a more "patriarchal" version and have been surprised at how well it works. I don't have to be a male or female to enlist the behavior and I have seen the leadership in my group use this to a great degree without their knowledge perhaps, although I have a tendency to point it out and we have had productive dialogue on the topic. Paula Johnson affirms that if "women continue to use power styles that focus on the personal, helplessness, and indirect power, they will continue to remain powerless in society."
I know I'm not alone on noticing the gendered difference of power in the workplace. Or, perhaps this has given you pause for possible change for your practice's culture reformation.