In a study of 500 women conducted by Shapiro Barash, a gender-studies professor at Marymount Manhattan College, 70% felt that male bosses treated them better than female bosses did. Also, 65% of the women over age 50 admitted that they'd prefer to mentor women in their 20s instead of women in their late 30s or 40s.
The reason? A female Baby Boomer is often uncomfortable helping a woman "who might get her job next," says Professor Barash. Her research is detailed in a new book about women and rivalry, "Tripping the Prom Queen."
Some women are rethinking mentor/protegee relationships. Women born before 1945 often worked primarily out of economic necessity, and less because it was a fulfilling life choice, says Mel Fugate, a professor at Southern Methodist University's Cox School of Business, who studies generational diversity in the work force. That's why their advice doesn't always resonate with those born later.
Some powerful women in their 60s say they'd love to have older female role models. But few women over age 70 ever headed companies, and their workplace experiences as, say, teachers and nurses don't translate to today's corporate world. "My mentors used to be older men,: says Shirley Maddalena Edson, 62, who since 1976 has run her own interior-design firm in Birmingham, MI. Now, hungry for feminine input, she turns to female designers in their 40s to be her role models.
Source: The Wall Street Journal, May 4, 2006
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