ExCo

I had a very depressing conversation a couple of weeks ago.

I was talking to a woman who had been on the Executive Committee of one of the major French banks.

Even though there were many women on the ExCo, she said it was still pretty aggressive.

Everyone, including the women, were fighting for their corner.

It is often said that women in positions of leadership need to be seen to be competent AND caring. If they are only competent, people say they are “surrogate men” or “aggressive”. Women leaders who are not nice, kind or caring offend the traditional stereotypes about women.

It is often said that this is an additional, unfair burden to place on women leaders.

But instead of saying it's an unfair burden on women, when do we start placing the same expectation on men?

If having more women leaders is just "same old same old", what's the point?