Our history books are conspicuously lacking in the representation of almost 50 percent of our population.
As the old adage goes, history is doomed to repeat itself. After decades of social progress and increased awareness, women are still absent from the majority of leadership positions, board rooms and focus groups.
Though, quite obviously, a wide variety of factors contribute to these inhibitions, one cause can be seen clearly in popular culture: a fear of powerful women.
A saddening phenomena is the tendency for oppressed social groups to become their own harsh critics and regulators. One can witness this unfortunate commonality in the forms of internalized racism or homophobia. Women are certainly not immune to this pressure. Financial Times columnist Lucy Kellaway confessed in a 2012 piece that her successful female friends had begun to scare her. Male friends in similar situations, however, caused no such fright.
These fears arise from our perceptions of female leaders, not their realities. We brand a woman as domineering, emotional or distant, regardless of the complete picture of her life.
Kellaway then went on to list female icons that our culture as a whole seems to share her discomforting view of: Angela Merkel, Margaret Thatcher, Anna Wintour and Hillary Clinton, just to name a few. These fears can be linked to the stereotypes to which we hold female leaders, ranging from the cold-hearted ice queen to job-obsessed spinster.
According to Valerie Young, Ed.D., author of “The Secret Thoughts of Successful Women,” male leaders are allowed to have complex personalities while female leaders are summed up by the stereotypes they appear to embody.
All too often, members of minority and oppressed populations are asked to be representatives of the entirety of their respective group or groups. Therefore, when a woman rises to a position of authority, we project her image upon that of countless other female leaders.
The notion that the presence of women and other oppressed groups in places of power is due to a “token” situation is another pervasive assumption. Margaret Thatcher may have frequently been the only woman at the table, but she most certainly was not placed there because of her womanhood alone.
I challenge both my peers and myself to think critically about our gut reactions to female leaders. We must acknowledge our own discomforts or prejudices before we can begin to alter and overcome them.
Inspired by the powers of a legendary Welsh witch, Stevie Nicks handily captured the essence of our mystified fear of powerful women when she penned “Rhiannon” for Fleetwood Mac’s 1975 self-titled album, “All your life you’ve never seen a woman taken by the wind.”
Indeed, a woman in a position of power is a startling anomaly to many. I believe it’s about time we saw more strong women take flight.
sjdickma@indiana.edu
