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Are female bankers scary?

23 October 2007

Paul Clarke

Is it true that women who claim to be dynamic, ambitious and self-starting often come across as simply intimidating instead?

Yes, according to a recent panel at the 8th Annual Women in Business Conference, held at London Business School last week.

The panel on personal branding was made up of (among others) Melissa Carnathan, managing director at Merrill Lynch, Jane Champ of American Express, and Julie McEver, head of research at New Philanthropy Capital.

Each of the women on the panel claimed that despite attempts to present themselves as (merely) professional, competitive and ambitious, they have instead at some point in their careers been labelled as ‘scary’.

The panel argued that in the typically macho banking world such traits are encouraged in men, yet a dynamic edge is often frowned upon when exhibited by women.

True or false? Can women be forceful but not frightening? How can they get ahead without being tarred with the ‘scary’ brush? Should such qualities be celebrated rather than censured? Your comments please…

Comments (12)

I have dated female bankers and would not repeat the experience.

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Comments (12)

  • Most successful assertive professionals are likely to be labelled as scary by a few at some stage during their career. I consider myself lucky to work in an environment with stimulating, robust and driven individuals both male and female.

    Martin Heale 23 Oct 2007

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  • i speak from personal experience in my interaction with 1 member of the panel... my answers are as follows:
    1. No a dynamic edge is not frowned upon when exhibited, but its should show without trying too hard to demonstrate it.
    2. Yes, if they dont over react and get too high strung about it and especially over stress the point. it would help if they listened a bit instead of driving a point
    3. they can get ahead by being a lot more modest (which high powered women arent) - one can still be confident and assertive if one is logical.
    4. Dont see why such qualities should be centured... tempered, yes...

    Anonymous 23 Oct 2007

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  • I once worked at an advisory boutique with an incredibly scary women - at the time I put it down to hormones / women trouble etc. Pretty chauvinistic really - on reflection, I think it was probably more likely to be because she fancied me!

    Bob Millifield 23 Oct 2007

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  • I am working with one highly driven woman at the moment, and yes, she is scary and very annoying most times. She know it and told me as much the first time I met with her. She seems to enjoy the reputation and does a lot to promote it. Other women just back down whenever she gets involved in most discussions. I simply avoid her as much as possible. She appears to think that being pushy is the way to get ahead. By the way, my boss is a woman, and it is great to work for her. She is demanding, detailed but not scary.

    Anonymous 23 Oct 2007

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  • In my view there are two drivers for the "scary woman fenomena": (a) is the fact that many ambitious women believe that the way up is by being a "better man" - blunt, agressive, etc. and ofter overdo on this front with obviously disastrous results; (b) is the persisting socially-mental cliche that what is good for a man is bad for a woman - i.a. being driven, ambitious, tough and being able to defend yourself easily put you to the "barracuda" category. I personally often heard a "friendly advise" to be "softer", smile more and rather listen than talk while I was behaving exactly the same way as my male colleagues did. I even did some funny experiments by pronouncing exactly the same phrases in exactly the same settings and observing totally different reaction than that to my male peers! Something to think about...

    Female Anonimous 24 Oct 2007

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  • It's easy to detect whether a woman is naturally driven and ambitious. You can see it in other aspects of her life, the things she's into and her composure under stressful situations. The fake ones you know because it looks like they're just having a bad day everyday.

    RA 24 Oct 2007

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  • I think powerful women are deemed scary because one is not used to such a dynamic. It is in fact scary to deal with the unknown. I work with two women: one who is genuinely an expert in her field, confident, knowledgable, and assertive - which makes her a bit scary. The other is only fronting all these characteristics and makes up with her stern looks and curt replies. IN the end, they both have the same so-called "scary" effect, but everyone knows who holds the cards and who is going to be fired come the merge that is in the works.

    Premala Matthen 24 Oct 2007

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  • I used to work under a top performing female boss - she was superb at her job - but was REALLY REALLY SCARRY - she was hormonal, moody and a bad team player - almost ended up ruining my career with her but luckily had a good escape - phew!!!

    Have nothing against top performing women - i have been encourgaing my wife in her career - but for women to put up that hormonal face to rise up in the ladder is a despicable experience

    A rattled male employee!

    Anon 27 Oct 2007

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  • Are female bankers scary?  Yes, sometimes, in the same way that male bankers are sometimes!  Just because a woman is in banking doesn't mean that she might be behaving unacceptably!  Ditch the sexist article pleeeease, this is the 20th century!
    PS - Too many references to hormones in this debate....men suffer hormone fluctuations too, but they are just rewarded for the agressiveness instead of belittled for it....

    Kiva 29 Oct 2007

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  • I find that some women act overly aggressive in order to be ambitious, I long for the day when women would be themselves and ambitious without trying to be a "man"

    The same applies in media circus dominated by women where men act "feminine" in order to fit in....

    There is no doubt that women do become great leaders and innovators... just quit trying to be anything other than a woman.

    Pushy and aggressive people are unpleasant, Period. They dress up poor behaviour under terms such are “driven” and “ambitious”

    Look around you, the most successful men and women around are ambitious, driven and most of all, charming.

    J 02 Nov 2007

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