Turns Out Men Treat Female Co-Workers Like They’re Chicks At The Bar
Contrary to what they’d like you to believe, men are actually pretty fragile creatures. Just one wrong move and you could bruise their balls, their ego, or their masculinity–or maybe all three. The more “manly” a guy wants to portray himself, the more likely it seems that he is to use the phrase “no homo” and refuse to part-take in any “girly” activities.
This same type of dude is also the most likely to tell his girl to “make him a sandwich,” because he believes that all women belong in the kitchen. Why does it bother some men so much when women want to have a “manly” career instead of sticking to a life as a homemaker, nurse, teacher, or any other traditionally female career path?
A new study says that it’s because men feel threatened by powerful women. And honestly, is this really such a surprise? If you know you’re a girl boss, I’m sure you’ve been told that “guys are intimidated by you,” right? And when you demonstrate the exact same management tactics as your male co-worker on the job, you’re called “bitchy” while he’s called “competent,” right?
Huffington Post outlines the three experiments performed under the study, but all findings pointed to the same conclusion: Men were always more intimidated by a female supervisor, and this consistently lead to aggressive reactions in return.
Think about the time that you told a guy you weren’t interested in him and he responded by lashing out at you angrily and defensively? This is kind of the same thing, except in the workplace.
Essentially, the way guys act towards girls that are out of their league at the bar– calling them sluts to make themselves feel better and trying to degrade them, is kind of how guys act towards the girls that are out of their “league” at work.
Because the men felt threatened, they reacted by withholding more money from the female co-worker, whereas when paired up with men, they were likely to offer more money. The researchers agreed that this behavior is common when men are trying to “protect their masculinity.”
These studies uniquely show that it’s not status that intimidates men, it’s the combination of the opposite gender and status. After all these years, it seems that men are still not ready to view women in power (especially when the woman has power over the male himself). The only exception seems to be when a woman in power is the dude’s wife, which means financial support. So, what’s a girl to do? Fight even harder for the job and the wages that you deserve. And if a male co-worker is being a douchebag, maybe you should show him this study?