Ann Friedman questions the shoulder-padded logic that women must act like men in professional environments:
Ever since women began making serious workplace gains in the 1970s, there has been a debate about the best way for them to climb the professional ladder. More often than not, the answer has been to “act like a man” — if you can’t beat the boys’ club, join it. Oversell yourself in job interviews. Ask for more raises. Demand a better title. Be assertive in expressing your opinion. You’re gonna make it after all.
Women have made only marginal professional and political progress over the last decade, yet this simple refrain — be aggressive! B-E aggressive! — still makes for a convenient, can-do solution. In January, new-media guru Clay Shirky published “A Rant About Women” on his blog, summing up this view: “I sometimes wonder what would happen, though, if my college spent as much effort teaching women self-advancement as self-defense. … Now this is asking women to behave more like men, but so what? We ask people to cross gender lines all the time.”