Page 189 - Microaggressions in Everyday Live Race, Gender, and Sexual Orientation

Gender Microaggressions and Sexism 163

For every Carly Fiorina (former CEO of Hewlett - Packard) heading a Fortune
400 company, she represents a statistical rarity when compared against men.
When gender is introduced into the leadership equation, women seem to
always come out second, third, or fourth best.
Second, Steinem bemoans the double - standard used to judge women and to
keep them in their place. While she never uses the word “ sexism, ” she makes
it clear that it is prejudicial attitudes, beliefs, and stereotypes that have created
a sex barrier that have shackled women to inferior positions and roles. These
double standards create no - win situations for women. While men are valued
for their assertiveness, an attribute of leadership, women evidencing these traits
are described as “ bitchy. ” Ironically, women are also aware that they must
conform to masculine roles or behavior standards in order to be perceived as
credible leaders. They are told to be wary of showing emotions or social sen-
sitivities to others or they will be perceived as being “ weak ” or “ too emotional ”
to deal with the rough and tumble of logical decisions. Appearance, too, can
be a double - edged sword for women. Rubin (2008) makes the following
observation:

Let ’ s turn to the snapshot afforded us by a special section the Wall Street Journal
publishes annually, the most recent titled “ Fifty Women to Watch 2007. ” Its front
page features a thumbnail - size photo of each woman. What some observers
might be thinking, but no one actually says, is that a number of these women
appear deliberately studiously unfeminine. Why might this be so?

Well, maybe because, regardless of gender, holding a top job in today ’ s mar-
ketplace means you have to court attention in the media. And for women,
that attention inevitably focuses on how they look . . . .
When Senator Clinton turned down Vogue ’ s request for a photo shoot, editor -

in - chief Anna Wintour wrote, “ Imagine my amazement, then, when I learned
that Hillary Clinton, our only female presidential hopeful, had decided to steer
clear of [being photographed for] our pages at this point in her campaign for
fear of looking too feminine. The notion that a contemporary woman must look
mannish in order to be taken seriously as a seeker of power is frankly dismay-
ing. ” She went on to ask, “ How has our culture come to this ” and state, “ This is
America, not Saudi Arabia. ”

In many respects, the concerns expressed by Steinem (2008) point to the opera-

tion of gender microaggressions as reflected in the hidden themes of individuals,
institutions, and our society directed toward women. “ A women ’ s place is in the

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