Women prefer flirting to get ahead (UK survey by Harper's Bazaar)

[oblivious]

I first saw this UPI summary on The Earth Times. The longer Daily Mail article follows. I find it fascinating.

Report: Women prefer flirting to get ahead
LONDON, Feb. 5
A British survey of 500 successful professional women has found that most prefer to have male superiors so that they can use flirting to get promotions.

The Daily Mail said the study, commissioned by Harper's Bazaar magazine, found that 86 percent of women surveyed said they would flirt with a male colleague if it meant a better chance for workplace advancement.

he study also found that 60 percent of those asked would rather work for a man than a woman, while 58 percent said there was indeed gender equality in their workplace.

Harper's Bazaar editor Lucy Yeomans said other shocking findings from the study included nearly 70 percent of respondents admitting they would revel in a co-worker's failure and 20 percent confessed to taking credit for another's work.

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/27593.html

Forget hard work - women would rather flirt their way to the top

...Despite striving for equality at work a third of women admitted to pretending to be less intelligent than they actually are to flatter a male ego and get ahead.

Seven out of ten women said that simply by wearing a pair of high heels to work they automatically felt more powerful and confident in their ability to deal with the working day.

Although only 58 per cent of women thought there was gender equality in the office, one in 25 admitted to selling out a female colleague for their own career gains.

Nearly 70 per cent confessed that they would secretly revel in seeing another colleague fail while one in five have taken the credit for someone else's work.

According to the research there is conflict between mothers and childless women in the workplace. More than half of women thought that women with children held more power in the office to the disadvantage of those without.

...Harper's Bazaar editor Lucy Yeomans said: "We anonymously polled a variety of professional women from City high-flyers and health care managers to newspaper editors. Some of the results confirmed our suspicions - the power of high heels, for instance - while others were surprising, in particular the fact that the majority of women polled would rather work for a male boss. "We work in a female-dominated industry and were amazed at this lack of 'sisterly' support. But considering so many also confessed to flirting with a male colleague as a means to getting their own way, perhaps we shouldn't have been so shocked!"
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=433782&in_page_id=1770

[Katherine Brengle]

1. I love it when people pass along bullshit like this...

This goes in the bin with the "Housework Prevents Breast Cancer" article.

Also, about high heels - coming closer to the height of a man *does* usually make a woman feel more powerful and confident, and it has nothing do with sex, it has to do with not feeling small and weak.

[oblivious]

2. You're welcome.

[Katherine Brengle]

4. Did you read my whole post?

If so I guess you chose to ignore what I actually had to say.

Really surprising for someone who post this to begin with... :sarcasm:

[oblivious]

5. Yes, I read your whole post. Thank you for your input. That's why I posted it.

I'd like to know what people think. Sorry if it made you angry.

Edit: spelling error

[BlueJazz]

10. Allright....that does it!

[WI_DEM]

3. Yeah, this is the only way women get ahead--not brains but looks

My manager is a woman and does a damn good job and frankly, I doubt she got ahead by flirting or on her looks.

[WindRavenX]

6. 500 is a damn small sample size

Fucking st00pid poll.

[Berry Cool]

12. The sample size isn't necessarily an issue

but I'd sure as heck like to see the methodology. Who'd they poll? 500 of their closest friends?

[pink-o]

7. The Daily Mail is a right-wing rag

...not as bad as The Sun, but still pretty reactionary.

I lived in England in the 70s, and I swear that survey was taken the first year I moved there! And if the opinions aren't from 1974, then they're from women caught in the time warp of that era.

Anyone who knows this latest generation of Brit women understands this is compleat crap.

[oblivious]

8. The Daily Mail is reporting the Harper's Bazaar Survey. I tried to make that clear in the title.

[not_a_robot]

9. How odd

I always feel like I'm reading some distorted reality with this kind of stuff. All the fluff and no substance, but plenty of shocking tell. BTW all the other articles listed from that author are the same formula. Not much to say, people will sell anything.

[LanternWaste]

11. Sheesh. I'm a guy and I've done it and sometimes, it works!

Sheesh. I'm a guy and I've done it and sometimes, it works!

I don't feel less of a person because I've flexed in front of a female supervisor, or listened to her banal jokes and laughed my ass off, or asked her, "have a date tonight?" No... why? "Well, you just look really nice today...".

And I've picked up Basketball for Dummies 'cause the male owner loves the game and I wanted to prep for it prior to a lunch meeting. I also complmented him on a hideous tie, and laughed at his banal jokes too.

Sheesh, lots and lots and lots (and lots) of workers do a lot of things we wouldn't do if it weren't taking place in the office. Thinking that women flirt to get ahead is a no-brainer to me, just as when I did the same thing...

[oblivious]

13. OK, look, what's with the aggressiveness here.

I didn't post this to put down high-powered corporate women. I posted it to generate discussion.

I've taught Business Communication for quite a few years, and though I'm on the other side of the world, we use American textbooks and some case studies require students to consider how they would deal with difficult colleagues in order to analyze communication barriers, blah blah.

This sort of article might generate some interesting discussion in those classes, men learning from women, women from men and so forth, not just a critique of sample representativeness though it is obviously important. I'm not saying I would ever use this particular study without knowing more about it, but I bet you would find some interesting views in a class discussion.

I hope they wouldn't toss me out of class with screams of BULLSHIT! ASSHOLE! or something like that. Creepy.

[The Straight Story]

14. It is, alas, true and false. Sort of like all polls...

People will use the tools they have to accomplish the goals they have.

Sex sells - both ways of course. The reason women do this more is not because they are weaker, but because we males are. Women are not so easily swayed (some are, there are always some in all groups).

Men try to do this, we just fail cause women catch on to us :)

This all seems to be male bashing (but is it bashing if it is true?).

Men don't think or promote with their brains, so if a woman does want to move up she can either play the game or stay behind - all because they know us men are real dicks at times.

And I am sure some folks will yell and scream about it all being demeaning to women, etc and so on, but to me it all how you choose to perceive the issue and the real world solutions.

I work in the corporate world and I have seen more than a few times - guy manager has some pretty young women working for him, he picks the one he 'likes' the most, promotes her, and they end up traveling together on business, going to lunches, etc.

How do you think it makes us guys feel when we keep getting passed over on promotions?

Yeah - I HATE the practice - is not best for the company, nor the bottom line.

The fact though is - it is reality, and changing is like trying to teach abstinence only. Won't work, people need to grow up and realize a dream of how things should be does not mean they ever will be, and work around the problem with newer and better solutions (always knowing the problem won't go away fully).

[Porcupine]

15. DU feminism can feel a bit harsh.....

but they mean well.

Relevant questions would be a) why did Harpers choose to ask those questions. b) why would the women answer as they did and c) why then did they choose to publish the piece.

The last question is easy. Anything that questions that a woman's role in the office is anything but eyes-forward professional gets press. The cries of outrage will boost their readership if nothing else.

The curious thing is why women in professional settings might see flirting as a way of greasing the tracks toward advancement. Obviously it works on men but is that the path of least resistance?

[The Straight Story]

16. one of many paths really

Hell, I might flirt with the boss if it meant moving up and being able to better take care of the family.

The sum of it all though is - politics. So much of that work, and this but one area of it. Kind of like people saying Obama has charisma. People like him more because is easy on the eyes and is articulate and clean as well ;)

So I can see people 'dressing' for success - both men and women, tailoring such to those with the power to help them move up.

Our candidates sell themselves on several fronts, if you got it - use it.

See the threads on Mayor Newsom of late? Folks drooling over him and such - you can bet if some of them folks had me working for them and him he would probably move up faster than I would with that old excuse: "Sure, you know how to program real well and figure out all the tech stuff greatly, so we need to keep you where you are and promote someone with more 'manager' skills who knows less."

Seen it happen many times.

Me on the other hand, I had that manager job and chose to leave it - too much politics, back stabbing, and seeing people move higher up based on sex appeal.

I just want to do my job, too old for the games :)

[The Straight Story]

17. A bit of a different answer for C above

They publish it because they know people in the work place see it and love to bitch about it.

It exists, but not always of course - just enough that most people have seen it happen (and I have seen men promote men who had a lot of connections to women, just so they could hang out with them. The one guy had some clients who owned a strip club (he had a side business) he got promoted and the boss was hanging out with him and the girls from the club at bbq's every few weekends over the summer).

It's all about sex these days. Damned shamed, but ya can't change people anymore than the fundies can :)

[Runcible Spoon]

18. yes, we prefer to flirt to get ahead and when that doesn't pan out....

we cry rape to get back at eeeeeeeeeeevil men :eyes:

[oblivious]

19. Some comments after the Daily Mail article:

This is rubbish and insulting rubbish to all the women who work really hard, get paid less than men and then get passed over for promotion by less hardworking men.
- Thaila, London

Like we never knew this? Ha!
- Alastair Macgregor, Dubai UAE

New Research! We have known this since the dawn of time.
- Robert, Essex, England

What absolute rubbish! Firstly, not all women are heterosexual and secondly, not all bosses are male.
- Jo, Kent

Surely not, women are pure, honest and hard working. They would never resort to such lowdown tactics.

Would they?
- Rc, Scotland

Is this actually true, or is it just what those male bosses wish was true? In their dreams!
- Caro, UK

Well if it works - I'll give it a go! Anyone know where I can get some high heels, size 11?
- John B, Dorset, Dorchester, Dorset