Dilemmas Of A Woman Leader

Chandana Agarwal Sep 17, 2021

2006, Devil Wears Prada, Miranda Priestly is about to reach her office. Her driver texts her secretary, who announces ‘’Gird your Loins’. The entire office scampers around, people run helter-skelter, the elevator is waiting, the coffee is ordered, even the plants know it's time to bloom. It's showtime baby!

Miranda has a certain view of the world, its inhabitants, its fashion and expects everyone to fit in with that view. There is no team, there is 'her' and the rest. It is like she is the leader of a cult and for the survival of the cult, everyone needs to build her up. She is the goddess who demands absolute devotion. There is an insurmountable power distance between her and everyone else. Her people are expected to annihilate themselves and rebuild themselves in the image of their Goddess. They are constantly second-guessing her. She demands total submission of personal life, of personality, of identity, of love, of marriage, of happiness.

She herself is on the brink of a divorce.

2020, The Bold Type, Jacqueline Carlyle, a woman boss, same setup, same industry, same pressures. She is human, she is approachable, she is a coach who is interested in your personal and professional growth. She gets people to question their self imposed boundaries to deliver work that works and work they feel good about submitting. Nobody needs to worry about her moods because she is a professional. She is inspiring, she has been there done that. She doesn’t give up on her marriage to be a success, she finds a way to celebrate her anniversary while being at work. You want to be your best and do your best for her because she believes in you.

Both, Miranda Priestly and Jacqueline Carlyle love their work and are good at it and are powerful influencers in the industry. But the culture they create is starkly different.

In one culture, women are inadvertently pulling each other down, in the other, they build each other up, they support, encourage, cheer and they celebrate each other's wins.

What is at play, what has transpired in the last 15 years?

As women leaders today many of us have been a witness to and a participant in this transformation.

At one level, it is easy to say that there has been a feminization of the world, the workplace and culture in the last 15 years. In this context, Feminisation refers to attributes associated with women not belonging to them – nurturing, caring, inclusivity, sensitivity, cooperation, access, equality, vanity and appearance. But to explain the dramatic change, the almost 180-degree transformation of values that are sought and behaviours that we have adopted, the question that begs to be asked is this;

As women managers do we create a culture or are we a product of the prevailing culture?

Lets take a step back and look at the evolution of feminism and its impact on culture – corporate, beauty, fashion etc.

The early stages of feminism were about fighting for equality by bringing about changes in legislation. They focused on a woman’s ability to compete in a man’s world, thus highlighting the qualities which rendered her classically masculine: independent, aggressive, strong, capable. Enter Miranda Priestly

In the third wave, women realized that they were made to feel lesser by the second wave feminists for wanting to look good or attract men. New sex-positive feminism allowing women to reclaim their femininity began to take shape.

Feminisation of the culture was equated to being liberal by both men and women and the impact was seen everywhere, from fashion (colourful floral ties)replaced the dull grey ones in board rooms )to the idea of masculinity itself.

The impact on corporate culture was immediate and pronounced. According to Megatrends author Robert Naisbitt: “No longer is a manager a barking boss who is a know-it-all… [instead] we have to think about the manager as a teacher, as a mentor, as resource developer of human potential.” Naisbitt identified a set of homespun management principles he called “Motherisms”; fellow management guru Tom Peters later issued precepts he called “Motherhoods.”. The culture was changing from competition to collaboration from control to shared responsibility, from command to empowerment and from hierarchy to partnership. Enter Jacqueline Carlyle

Is it fair to say that Jacqueline, therefore, is a better boss than Miranda – I am not sure. Are they all that different or are they more similar than it appears? They are both women who are trying to make a place for themselves as per the dominant narrative of the times they live in, they are both doing what they need to do to stay at the top of their game hammered and chiselled by the cultural codes that prevail

Written by Chandana Agarwal, a woman manager, who was trying to be one and now is trying to be the other.

The author is Chandana Agarwal, President North, 82.5 Communications (Ogilvy Group)