In my current work, I frequently support teachers who have had issues with their head teachers. One of my recent cases was a female teacher who is in a position of authority. Her headteacher had challenged her over the difficulty of her job, had questioned her over her level of commitment, had actually asked the question "What does your husband do?", and wondered what time she arrived in the mornings.
Oh yes, and it was a female headteacher.
According to some psychologists or business gurus this is the Queen Bee theory - that women don't help out other women, that we prefer to work with other men and have little sympathy for the problems other women experience in the work place.
It is easy to find cases to support this, they tend to be anecdotal and perhaps we have fewer examples with which to compare. Perhaps women are still more comfortable asking the questions which have been accepted as unacceptable and sexist. Everyday sexism (http://everydaysexism.com) reminds us of plenty of contemporary examples and anyone my age seems to be able to compare memories that were acceptable in the 80s...maybe...eugh.
Anecdotally, I can report very few problems with any of my female bosses, many of whom have surrounded themselves with other women, although the field of education is more or less 50:50 male : female and perhaps not representative of the wider world of business.
I wonder if it isn't women bosses that are the problem, but sometimes bosses in general. What does it take to get to the top in whatever field you work? Many people who are in charge have got there because of an absolute faith in themselves, their own ability and what they believe is right. That's kind of inevitable isn't it? If you prevaricate and procrastinate, considering both sides of the argument and worrying about whether you made the right decision , then you are probably a lot less decisive and probably move a lot less quickly than if you trust in your own judgement and don't feel the need to widely consult.If that were the case, then you wouldn't have a great deal of regard for anyone else's way of doing anything. If you have succeeded, if you have done things your way and it has worked then you do not always respect anyone else's life choices or even understand why anyone would not want to achieve what you have achieved.
This attitude seems also to exist in some middle class politicians attitudes to working class communities. About a year ago, David Willetts was engaged in a debate about white working class boys and their failure to thrive in our comprehensive system. People like me and some of the boys I have taught over the years do not see ourselves reflected in the political class, or for that matter the City and its working residents. They don't even always respect what they do; we've all read about those thieving expense and libor fiddlers. It's better to be happy. Getting a good job - like in the public sector - is more sensible, especially if you don't have family money to fall back on. No one we know is in those trades, nor can they provide us with work experience in the long summer holidays from independent school.
So if you are in a job that you enjoy and have got to the top, it is hard to see why others can't do it. They must be too lazy or distracted or unfocused. I have only gone for promotions when I have got closer to those positions and realised that the job isn't quite what I thought it was, or that the people who are doing it are not super human, or have simply realised that the person immediately above me is working less hard than me and getting paid more for it.
Back to the unsympathetic female bosses; they shouldn't only be promoting other women. They shouldn't be criticising other women for doing things in a different way, and as I have discussed here many times; things won't change until we accept that parents may have to work differently, and everyone should be working differently and it is no more acceptable for a man than a woman to work until way past his or her baby daughter's bathtime or the time that they could be helping to feed a confused or elderly parent.
We are still trying to balance a situation that has been continuing for a very long time. It took a very long time and a great deal of technology before people could claim that men running with no legs could be at an unfair advantage in a sprint. The originators of that competition did not set up the race fairly in the first instance, so why shouldn't women be given a leg up against this unfair backdrop? At first, runners without legs competed in events against one another and that is starting to change.
