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The wonderful world of an all-Female workplace

S

Sniffles

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Over in one corner sat Alice, a strong-minded 27-year-old who always said what she thought, regardless of how much it might hurt someone else. In the other corner was Sarah, a thirtysomething high-flier who would stand up for herself momentarily - then burst into tears and run for the ladies.

Their simmering fight lasted hours, egged on by spectators taking sides and fuelling the anger. Sometimes other girls would join in, either heckling aggressively or huddling defensively in the toilets. It might sound like a scene from a tawdry reality show such as Big Brother, but the truth is a little more prosaic: it was just a normal morning in my office.

The venomous women were supposedly the talented employees I had headhunted to achieve my utopian dream - a female- only company with happy, harmonious workers benefiting from an absence of men.

It was an idealistic vision swiftly shattered by the nightmare reality: constant bitchiness, surging hormones, unchecked emotion, attention-seeking and fashion rivalry so fierce it tore my staff apart.

When I read the other day that Sienna Miller had said there was no such thing as 'the Sisterhood', I knew what she meant.

I can understand why people want to believe that women look out for each other - because with men in power at work and in politics, it makes sense for us to stick together.

In fact, there was a time when I believed in the Sisterhood - but that was before women at war led to my emotional and financial ruin.


Five years ago, I was working as a TV executive producer making shows for top channels such as MTV, and based in Los Angeles. It sounds like a dream job and it could have been - if I'd been male.

Working in TV is notoriously difficult for women. There is a powerful old boys' network, robust glass ceiling and the majority of bosses are misogynistic males.

Gradually, what had started out as a daydream - wouldn't it be great if there were no men where I worked? - turned into an exciting concept. I decided to create the first all-female production company where smart, intelligent, career-orientated women could work harmoniously, free from the bravado of the opposite sex.

In hindsight, I should have learned the lessons of my past - at my mixed secondary school I was bullied by a gang of nasty, name-calling girls, so I knew only too well how nasty groups of women could become.

And working in TV, I'd met lots of super-competitive 'door-slammers' who'd do anything to get to the top. But I told myself that, with the right women, work could be wonderful.

So, in April 2005, I left my job, remortgaged my house - freeing up close to £100,000 - and began paying myself just £700 a month to set up this utopian business. Having worked extremely hard for 12 years, I had lots of experience and a good reputation. What could go wrong?

Read the rest here:
Catfights over handbags and tears in the toilets. With her women-only TV company this producer thought she'd kissed goodbye to conflict... | Mail Online
 
S

Sniffles

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constant bitchiness, surging hormones, unchecked emotion, attention-seeking and fashion rivalry so fierce it tore my staff apart.

Oh how horribly sexist of her to say so. Looks like the patriarchy has poisoned another innocent female mind.
 

nozflubber

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Lol.......

I can't even begin to describe all the things that are wrong with this insinuation (biggest part would be sampling bias due to self-selection - think of the kind of women in the population that would jump to the prospect of an all female workplace..... that's right, emotionally unstable, possibly PTSD, women!), but it's funny nonetheless
 
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Orangey

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I'm not sure what this proves, other than that the woman in the article is a bit of a moron. She has a problem: old boys network, misogynistic co-workers, glass ceiling. Solution: replace males with females. She goes wrong on two fronts: (1) she thinks that women are somehow inherently more cooperative than males, and (2) half of her problems are systemic and really have little to do with gender relations on the ground level (e.g., glass ceiling, old boys network).

On top of that, the bitchiness and hormonal overkill of the women she describes says nothing about whether she was able to solve her glass ceiling/old boys network problem. It only addresses the fact that all women work environment didn't (oh, big surprise!) make it any more pleasant from day to day than the majority male environment.
 

ajblaise

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Great thread idea. It's about time we knock women down a peg or two.
 

Laurie

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The only female dominated workplace I was at was in retail as a teen, it was fine.

The wee bit of engineering (a year total) I did as a co-op was a male dominated workplace. By then it wasn't a big noticeable deal to me, engineering school was already male dominated. The Goodyear racing division had one female engineer. The Sasib division I was at had a female CAD specialist and no females in the small plant on site.

I actually can't imagine working as an adult in a female dominated industry. I don't really identify with females (I get along smashingly with my ENTP female friend though :p ) so it's hard to imagine it would be my favorite environment.
 

Amargith

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This is why I do not vibe with most women :D
Give me men, any day.

However, I must confess that my last two workplaces had a lot of women, and I got along with all of them. No doubt there's some gossipping that goes on, but most of the time we stood besides each other and could count on one another in time of need. It's just a matter of getting the right kinda people together and creating the right atmosphere. Oh and..some men are real women when it comes to gossipping and office politics btw!
 

juggernaut

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An all female environment of any kind...:sick:

I'll take the (supposed) glass ceilings, good-old-boy networks, and misogyny over that insanity any day.
 

zarc

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That's why I'm sticking to the wonderful world of an all male workplace. Less dickiness bitchiness.


It's likely that maturity played a role in the demise of such people, not because they were all females, and a lack of realistic expectation of "people" from that particular one.
 
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Sniffles

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It's likely that maturity played a role in the demise of such people, not because they were all females, and a lack of realistic expectation of "people" from that particular one.

That certainly is an important factor to remember. You just can't reduce everything to an issue of gender, class, race, etc. even though on some levels those do have roles to play in the workplace and society in general even.

I have read some reports showing that males and females tend to learn better in single-gender enviroments; especially since the cirriculum can be adjusted to meet the learning needs and styles of the male and female students.

Very similar to how Thomas Sowell noted of certain cases in the segregated South of all-black schools outperforming white schools.
 

simulatedworld

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Oh how horribly sexist of her to say so. Looks like the patriarchy has poisoned another innocent female mind.

+1


On a side note, how on Earth did she avoid sexual discrimination laws?

You can bet that if someone started a male-only company of any kind, it would be litigated to death within hours.
 

Udog

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And working in TV, I'd met lots of super-competitive 'door-slammers' who'd do anything to get to the top. But I told myself that, with the right women people, work could be wonderful.

There's your solution.

Truthfully, I think leadership is the key. The real story of the article was her failure as a leader and the lessons she learned. Remove the bitterness and it actually is pretty informative on some pitfalls to avoid in an all female environment.

Edit: Oh. She isn't blaming her self for her failures as a leader at all. She thinks she was above it all, and is only taking token personal responsibility. Shame.
 
S

Sniffles

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+1


On a side note, how on Earth did she avoid sexual discrimination laws?

You can bet that if someone started a male-only company of any kind, it would be litigated to death within hours.

Don't you know, only males can be sexist. Females cannot be sexist, because their negative attitudes towards men are natural reactions to the centuries-long oppression they suffered at the hands of the evil Patriarchy.

What, you didn't get the memo about that? It's off to sensitivity training for you.
 

ajblaise

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Peguy, it sounds like you've been a victim of female sexism in your past. Care to share your story?
 
S

Sniffles

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Peguy, it sounds like you've been a victim of female sexism in your past. Care to share your story?

No more than anyother man in this day and age. The fact just remains that like many other ideologies and "Ersatz religions"; Feminism is a plague upon our civilization with its false precepts and presuppositions.

However, I guess with the way things are going Feminism will be a non-issue in 30-50 years, just like how it became a non-issue within Roman society. Oswald Spengler noted how the "Ibsen woman" brought about the collaspe of many civilizations, and the West was next in line. Such is the silver lining of barbarian conquests.
 

ajblaise

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Feminism is a plague upon our civilization with its false precepts and presuppositions.

I don't know, that doesn't add up.

For women, it got them things like property rights, voting rights, and other civil rights. What has it done to men that outweighs that and makes it a plague?
 
S

Sniffles

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I don't know, that doesn't add up.

For women, it got them things like property rights, voting rights, and other civil rights. What has it done to men that outweighs that and makes it a plague?

It's undermined the basic foundation of society, namely the family, where the influence of women was really felt. After all it's in the home where culture is created, and many great geniuses became so because they were reared in supportive enviroments by their mothers. Even today, famous people will often say they got to where they did because of the love and support of their mother.

So they were very much the power behind the throne. They traded that for petty political rights which don't mean jack shit in the grand scheme of things.
 

ajblaise

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It's undermined the basic foundation of society, namely the family, where the influence of women was really felt. After all it's in the home where culture is created, and many great geniuses became so because they were reared in supportive enviroments by their mothers. Even today, famous people will often say they got to where they did because of the love and support of their mother.

So they were very much the power behind the throne. They traded that for petty political rights which don't mean jack shit in the grand scheme of things.

Liberalism in general undermined the basic traditions and norms of society. It was a good thing, there's more political and social freedom now.
 
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