@ProfLargofesse
Quite often women succeed in boardrooms and in institutions because they work within patriarchal systems, upholding them. It is still a requirement, I think, of moving up the ranks that women don't get uppity, that they don't challenge systems or system patriarchal modes of operation. It is all unspoken yet accepted
Absolutely. One organisation I worked for was very diverse in its 150+ workforce. Properly diverse by sex, race, age, religion, sexuality, physical disability etc. The leadership team were 7 middle aged straight men, six white and one black, and one middle aged white straight woman. The woman in the leadership team displayed the same stereotypical “alpha male” behaviour as the men. She was a bloody nightmare to work with, constantly trying to “win” any interaction.
The leadership were shocked when I said I thought their culture was misogynistic, pointing to the wonderfully diverse set of colleagues that I had. In my opinion though, they only valued the stereotypical male behaviours in the organisations “leaders”, and someone who had different but effective management styles (like my female, black, manager or her male, gay, colleague) were consistently overlooked. Because they did not have the inclination to get involved in the unproductive willy waving that went on in the c-suite, and focused on getting the job done.