The Sexes: Madam Executive

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Business Bitches. Fearing to move upward into an unknown job where they might make mistakes and appear incompetent, resentful women hang back and grow more resentful with the years; they are often seen by other employees, notes Jardim, as "business bitches." Unlike their male coworkers, women have no "support system," revolving around the lunch hour and the locker room, where men share valuable business tips about moving up the ladder. Excluded from the male system, women must establish their own.*

Some of Hennig's notions stem in part from her 1970 Ph.D. thesis, expanded with the help of Jardim, which will be published this year by Anchor Press under the title Women Executives: Pioneers in Management. For the thesis, Hennig interviewed 25 top female executives to discover what characteristics they shared. All of them had in effect shelved their femininity for many years in favor of their jobs. But when they reached the middle-management stage of their careers, usually in their late 30s or early 40s, they all, in various ways, declared a moratorium on their blind striving for success. They began to devote more time to their personal lives. Some married, some did not; but all, in Hennig's words, "signified their willingness to be viewed as women." After a period of reassessment they managed, for the first tune, to blend their femininity with their careers. Their relationships at work became more open and effective, and it was then that they made the final leap upward to become presidents or vice presidents of their firms.

A similar group of women whom Hennig studied, by continuing through their 40s to act as much like men as possible, remained in the levels of middle-management and were "closed, bitter, defensive, unhappy." Exactly why one group re-examined and redirected their lives while the other did not remains a question. But Hennig's and Jardim's advice to the woman who wants a successful career in business is unequivocal: don't be a wallflower, don't fear failure, and above all, be your womanly self.