Walk like a man...

Random thoughts...
A new study finds that if you want to climb the [corporate ladder] rungs, you have to act like a man... but not all the time. (Stanford Graduate School of Business)  

Researchers at Stanford studied 132 business-school grads over 8 years and found that women who showed a lot of masculine traits—aggressiveness, assertiveness and confidence—but who could also sense when to dial them down, were promoted more often than male and female peers.

In the business world, women who are aggressive, assertive, and confident but who can turn these traits on and off, depending on the social circumstances, get more promotions than either men or other women, according to a recent study coming out of the Stanford Graduate School of Business. The research suggests that for women to be successful they must simultaneously present themselves as self–confident and dominant while tempering these qualities with displays of communal characteristics. 

"To be successful, you must be assertive and confident, but if you are aggressive as a woman you are sometimes punished for behaving in ways that are contrary to the feminine stereotype. Such negative response to assertive women has been labeled the "backlash effect."

Speaking of "backlash effect" - in the personal, romantic element women are advised against putting forth "masculine" qualities.   In truth, do men really want smart, clever women?  I cite as a scientific example of my own - The movie, Something's Gotta Give (with Diane Keaton, Jack Nicholson, Keanu Reeves in an interesting love triangle - no make that quadrangle) - I love it when Erica's sister (who works at the university in Women's Issues) expounds on the all-too-common problem of older men overlooking their female peers for love and companionship in favor of younger women they find sexy and alluring.  The fascinating, educated and accomplished woman (like her sister) "sits at home night after night after night..."  Of course in the process she is becoming more and more accomplished but not getting a lot of dating action.

The quote:  Zoe Barry: "The whole over-50 dating scene is geared towards men leaving older women out. And, as a result, the women become more and more productive...and, therefore, more and more interesting. Which, in turn, makes them even less desirable because, as we know, men...especially older men are threatened and afraid of productive, interesting women.  It is just so clear."