Comments on: Using Female Advantages in Business? – Give me a break!

By: Lynda

Lynda — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 04:02:47 +0000

Being one of the women who struggled through the 60’s and 70’s trying to break into a non-female type job (and not succeeding), it’s been a wonderful confirmation to see today’s women getting those jobs and succeeding in their career choices without having to play the feminine wiles game.

Back in the day pretty females (not necessarily very bright ones at that) had a job advantage – executives wanted a good looking secretary sitting outside their office. Let’s face it, if you were a female and wanted to work in the business world you needed to either be a bookkeeper or a secretary – not much else was available to you. I celebrate that now some of those executives are women.

By: Linda

Linda — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 20:57:30 +0000

Jess, I have to agree with you on this. Everyone should be their own person – confident in what you do AND how you do it. It shouldn’t matter if you are male, female, black, white or green. All should be judged by the content of their actions and deeds.
How is this blog going, I saw a clip on TV this AM about “females for hire”. It was about the woman who started it and how successful she has become. All after she was very rudely dismissed from her “dream”job.

By: Bobbo

Bobbo — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 14:25:08 +0000

When I used to work in corporate hell I would often have female coworkers who tried to use their feminine charms to get preferential treatment. I could tell that it usually worked for them but it had the opposite effect on me.

Maybe I’m just wired differently.

“Catherine Kaputa is a brand strategist” I think this says a lot right here. While I do believe it’s important for a product to have an identifiable “brand”, I think people should still be viewed as…well, people and not brands.

I think it was Chuck Klosterman who said that since MTV’s the Real World he can classify people into one of seven different personality types and how sad that is for us as a culture.

By: Frank

Frank — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 22:18:56 +0000

I agree with you 100%. I have to accept that with extremely good-looking girls in the workplace its harder for me to trust them in a profesional level. I may be a victim of a society that associates beauty with stupidity. Models, Cheerleaders and such have made us believe that there is no such thing as a hot smart woman (which is false, and I’ve been proven wrong), but most of us have to fight the urge to fall for the stereotype.

Girls, use your beauty on the weekends, your sweet bum or your extra large breasts on display will only give you a bad name at work.

By: Jessica

Jessica — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 19:44:18 +0000

@Stephanie – Thanks for the support. The first post I wrote for this blog gave the exact type of tips you want to see more of – http://youngandemployed.com/2009/06/24/the-five-%e2%80%9cas%e2%80%9d-of-gaining-the-respect-of-your-co-workers/
Now that I have validation that this is valuable informaiton, I’ll write more posts like this.

By: Stephanie

Stephanie — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 18:46:42 +0000

Great post! I completely agree – confidence, advocating for yourself and actual ability to get the job done well are the true keys to success in the workplace.

I recently attended an MBA panel sponsored by my company, where a female panel member stated loudly that all women in the room should get an MBA. “It is a must for being taken seriously at work and getting the credibility you deserve.” This concerned me on several levels – 1) the idea that women HAVE to pay over $100K for a degree to get the same place as men seems like an antiquated and deeply flawed notion. 2) This idea is a self-fulling prophecy – act like you’re not good enough without additional credentials and pretty soon everyone will agree with you.

I wish articles on how to present and advocate for yourself were given more weight than these silly gender oriented guidelines. Just my two cents.

By: Jose

Jose — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 18:37:12 +0000

Interesting article. One I can understand very well.

I think we should all accentuate what we want others to value. I do appreciate a punctual, efficient, assertive, intelligent colleague. I appreciate a well mannered colleague – someone that goes out of his/her way to make me feel better (without trying to make me feel attracted). I also appreciate a clean, well dressed colleague: someone who creates a professional workplace with his/her way of presenting him/herself.

However, I prefer working with normal or tomboyish women rather than with the sexy-looking/lovely-character ones. Whenever I see a woman at work that accentuates herself as a woman I tend to take a mentally defensive posture: I do feel concerned about someone who has to use physical or personality features to gain my trust at work. That probably slows down her ability to gain my trust overall — something that is not good for either of us.

Now, I must confess — if a woman is great at computer software programming I find that extremely sexy, but don’t tell anyone. If she can disassemble her computer and put it back the way it was… that’s it… difficult to control myself.