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Daily Mail
10-05-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Are female bosses really meaner? Experts reveal why women in top positions seem stricter
Evoking images of catty Devil Wears Prada stereotypes, women in senior positions may often be perceived as harsher and less approachable than their male counterparts. 'Girlbosses' are presented as being almost immorally ambitious, blunt and un-naturally cold - compared to benevolently 'entrepreneurial' male CEOs. And according to the latest - albeit decade-old - statistic of its kind, both men and women would rather have a male boss than a female one. Despite that, the number of women in senior positions is exceeding men, and women in mid level positions are more likely to be promoted. So as we continue to adjust to a changing professional landscape, why are female bosses seen as meaner? 'To fit in at the top, ambitious women generally feel they need to communicate with those at the top, which are usually men,' Chelsea Brooke-Ward, an employment barrister, told FEMAIL. 'They start acting more assertive, more direct, because they want to be promoted - they're doing it for themselves. 'But there's a perception that women are more nurturing or approachable so when junior workers notice this change, they are unhappy.' Chelsea added that women find themselves being criticised 'from both sides', with people finding them either too soft or too strict. 'They're criticised at the top for not being assertive enough and by those below for being unapproachable or unsupportive,' she explained. Perhaps surprisingly, it is often women who are the loudest critics of their female seniors, she noted. It's usually during serious professional interactions, such as terminations of employment or disciplinary hearings, where most conflict arises. 'Say you've got a woman that's going through a grievance or a disciplinary,' said Chelsea. 'I think those at the bottom expect a level of rapport with a female investigator but if she's standoffish in that type of setting, she's criticised.' In this sense, women enact an internalised misogyny, where they believe other women should adhere to certain feminine traits. And they may believe that fellow women, united in the gender struggle, will be kinder to them, regardless of rank. Chelsea has acted in cases involving sex discrimination, pregnancy and maternity discrimination and hostile workplace cultures. 'I think there are conflicting opinions about how women at the top should behave - they're damned if they do and damned if they don't,' she added. Interestingly, a large number of the barrister's discrimination cases have been related to the removal of reasonable adjustments by a new female line manager. 'When a female manager takes a male's place, then sometimes those reasonable adjustments are questioned,' said Chlesea. 'I don't know whether scepticism is more inherent in women than men. 'But it's also because women feel their performance is under more of a microscope.' A working mother herself, Chelsea recalls many cases where a woman in a senior position has returned to work from having a child to find her leadership duties stripped. 'Even if they're just of child-bearing age, they may be overlooked for promotions simply because of the likelihood that they will have children. 'Sadly, it's not uncommon. And there are no proactive steps taken to inform women on maternity leave of potential promotions. 'When they come back, they feel let down but they don't want to rock the boat and appear sensitive. 'One case that's always stuck with me involved a woman returning from maternity leave to find her leadership responsibilities stripped away. 'The employer justified it on the grounds that she "seemed overwhelmed" and "part time working was not suitable to the role" and when questioning the decision she was being "difficult" and "paranoid".' 'She'd just had a baby but she hadn't lost her ability to lead,' Chelsea said. 'That subtle mix of benevolent sexism and outright discrimination is something I see far too often.' Jody Findley struggled with sexism in her managerial role, prompting her to found MINDSETA, through which she delivers inclusive training to improve work cultures. 'Men automatically get respected in their roles, especially in a senior role,' she told FEMAIL. 'A woman and a man could have the same job, same pay, same responsibilities, but their experiences will be very different. And the difference is respect.' In her leadership role, Jody says she opted for a collaborative approach. 'What I found is that I didn't get supported,' she said. 'If a man was asking for help, the response was "yes, anything you want". 'Whereas, as a female boss, when I was asking to collaborate it was "I haven't got time. I'm too busy. Do it yourself." 'So my approach didn't work and I can understand why a woman would try to be more stern and assert authority because when you're gentler, you won't get the same response as a man.' Jody says that women's health also plays a role in the way they are treated professionally. Women in the workplace often mask serious conditions such as PCOS and endometriosis, as well as the often debilitating effects of pregnancy, menstruation and menopause. 'I've got friends with really bad health problems and their work don't even know,' said Jody. 'They don't want to be devalued by their colleagues.' When exploring the experience of women, the intersection of ethnicity, age, disability, sexual orientation and class all play a role. 'Black women are almost erased,' said Jody. 'As a Black woman, I've had to step out of institutions because I had no choice. 'The more senior I became, the more devalued and disrespected I was. I've been told to give up my chair for a white man - the level of disrespect is off the chain for a working class black woman.' 'And now, amid the trans debate, how are trans women navigating the workplace?' Jody's resounding point was that female bosses must be supported by their colleagues. She called for more workplace training on misogyny, women's health and collaboration. 'We need men to help women in the workplace - they're the gatekeepers. We need them to stand up and give a platform to women.'
Forbes
07-04-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Seven Years In, The Female Founder Collective Remains A Cornerstone For Women Business Owners In A Rapidly Shifting Market
The Female Founder Collective's Rebecca Minkoff and Alison Wyatt at Female Founders Day, March 2025 In 2018, Alison Wyatt reached a turning point in her career. Working at a Girlboss, she was helping create programming and educational content for ambitious women trying to succeed within the corporate world, but Wyatt noticed a trend at their events. "At each Girlboss Rally, we held an event for founders called the Startup Studio, and every year, it would sell out within 30 seconds," Wyatt says. "This was at a time when the number of female founders starting their own businesses was rising every single year to the point where almost 2,000 women started a business per day in the United States." At the same time, Wyatt was considering having another child but was concerned about how to fit a newborn in with her demanding career. "I didn't want to be at my desk from 8-5 without feeding them or going to their sports games," she says. "Like a lot of these women, the whole notion of the corporate world no longer seemed to fit for me." Countless women at these events shared Wyatt's concerns. They were creating their own businesses after corporate glass ceilings pushed them to do so. But through the process, they found ways to build wealth while prioritizing work-life balance and redefining success on their own terms. 'They all had the ability to create the future we all wanted to see,' Wyatt says. 'This was the way women were going to get richer faster - not by waiting for that predicted 100 year time horizon to reach gender parity in the workplace.' Around the same time, Wyatt vividly remembers watching fashion designer Rebecca Minkoff walk off the stage at Cannes Lions, directly into the bathroom of the Female Quotient Lounge. Minkoff sat down on the floor and began unapologetically pumping milk for her newborn. 'I remember thinking it was such a power move,' Wyatt says. 'It made me realize we can design the life we want to have.' It was that moment of inspiration that led Wyatt to reach out to Minkoff. In September 2018, they created The Female Founder Collective, a powerful, high-impact network and education platform designed to help women build wealth, scale their businesses, and offer access to content, learning and capital. Renowned for her eponymous fashion brand, Minkoff recognized the challenges of navigating the fashion industry as a woman founder herself. But her drive to create the Female Founder Collective was born from another motivation. "The fashion industry is lonely as a founder. It's not known for people wanting to support each other,' she says. 'Plus, I wanted to expand beyond fashion. Getting to know other founders and bonding over the nuanced nature of being a woman in business selling something, there needed to be a community for these people.' The Female Founders Collective launched during Fashion Week in September 2018. The next day, Minkoff was shocked to find more than 3,000 membership applications on the website. The overwhelming response confirmed what she had sensed all along: an incredibly strong demand for a community to support women entrepreneurs across a wide range of industries. Teaming up with Wyatt, the duo was able to create the community Minkoff wished she'd had when initially starting her own business, with the goal of giving new founders access to the resources she lacked in the early days of her career. Today, the FFC has grown into a thriving community of 25,000 founders, spanning industries from beauty to healthcare to tech. Most of their early supporters, including prominent founders Aurora James, Zanna Roberts Rassi, Michelle Cordeiro Grant and others, are still part of the network today. 'I remember that first year, seeing (the FFC) logo stuck to every window and on every website of a female led business,' says Cordeiro Grant. 'It was just so beautiful and we were so hopeful about where the world was heading.' 'Fast forward to today, and women like myself now on our second startup up,' she continues, 'Now we're able to share the hardest and most fulfilling elements of what we do, from building businesses from concepts to ones that are now having a true impact on the world. It signals how much more change is yet to come.' Despite their many successes, the recognition, and the thousands of satisfied members, the journey hasn't always been easy. Originally, the organization was able to offer a free membership model sustained by brand partnerships with companies like Visa, SAP, UBS, Capital One and others. 'We tried to live on brand partnerships,' says Minkoff. 'And then Covid hit.' The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic led to a steep decline in partnership and brand dollars. To keep the company afloat, Wyatt and Minkoff were forced to shift to a paid membership structure. 'Transitioning the message from 'this is free' to 'you need to pay for this' was scary,' says Wyatt. 'It went smoothly but didn't scale fast.' At the time, they charged members $500 a year to join their paid networking community: The 10th House. Since then, membership costs haven't increased much, now at $695 per year. Now, the 10th House has 2,000 paid members with the broader Female Founders Collective community at around 25,000. The duo has also been forced to navigate shifting cultural sentiment like the rise and fall of the 'Girl Boss,' the backlash to calling women business owners 'female founders' and more. Throughout it all, Wyatt and Minkoff have remained committed to their original mission: helping women grow their businesses, keeping members engaged and delivering impactful programming. In 2024, Allison Pellerano-Rendon made the decision to leave her corporate role and launch design & creative agency The Collection Atelier. She says joining The 10th House helped her connect with women who were, 'navigating similar entrepreneurial challenges with unwavering support and genuine camaraderie.' Pellaro-Rendon cites the weekly opportunities for connection through small group events, interactive webinar-style chats with executives and more established founders as the specific resources that have been invaluable to her agency's growth. Legacy planner Noelle McEntree explains that joining the group finally gave her the confidence to finally put the word 'founder' in her LinkedIn profile after creating her company, Legado. 'It was nice to have a community where we could commiserate about the over-glamorization of VC capital and women's infuriating lack of access to it,' McEntree says. Her frustrations are warranted. Women-owned businesses in the U.S. still receive less than 2% of venture capital funding, a number that has remained stagnant over the past decade. That's one of the reasons why, in November 2023, the FFC introduced an annual retreat, The NETTE, tailored for founders focused on venture capital. The event focuses on education around securing growth-stage capital, navigating business exits, board management, organizational development and more. The Nette Retreat 2024 Next month, they plan to expand this group by introducing The CabiNETTE for mature founders that are further along in their journeys. The group is designed to support those who generate $5 million or more in revenue or have raised the equivalent in venture capital. 'The NETTE is like your cabinet of advisors,' Minkoff explains. 'It also means your safety net. So you don't have to be nervous about failing because there will be people here to catch you.' Minkoff and Wyatt still host their marquee event, Female Founders Day, every year, which is open to members and non-members alike. This year's event, held on March 13, had over 500 attendees. While big-name speakers like keynote Sarah Blakely (of Spanx and Sneex fame) delivered inspiration on the mainstage, the core programming focused on practical workshops, covering everything from mastering PR and media outreach to optimizing CRM platforms. 'We want to make sure attendees walk away with the skills and tools they need,' says Minkoff. 'They get to choose their own path and programming throughout the entire day. It's also a great reminder of what we offer our members, whether they're part of the free community, a paying member or part of this new group of founders farther along in their journey.' Cynthia Kalfa attended her first Female Founders Day this year. As she prepares to launch Ondine, a new line of stylish sun protective apparel, she says the summit made her feel more connected to other women founders who, like her, are just getting started. "Entrepreneurship can feel isolating especially when you are a solo founder, but events like this remind me that there's an incredible network of women who truly want to support each other,' she says. 'The connections I've made here go beyond business. I love hearing not only about people's wins, but their struggles and strategies. It's refreshing.' Through their unwavering commitment, relentless drive, ability to pivot and a deep belief in the power of community, Minkoff and Wyatt have not only stayed true to their original mission, they've sparked a movement. Wyatt still remembers those early conversations from her former corporate life, the ones she had with women leaving the stability of the corporate world to find new ways to build wealth and create their own success. That's why, seven years later, she and Minkoff remain committed to continuously redefining what's possible for women business owners, creating a future where inclusion, equity, and opportunity aren't the exception, but the rule.
