WOMEN
SPECIAL.. Dr Sujaya
Banerjee
Female bosses
continue to evoke mixed reactions
While it is
heartening to see the number of women in the Indian workforce, we still have
some way to go towards accepting ‘female bosses’. She is assertive, focussed
with the job on hand, unrelenting on rigour, is sincere to the point of
irritation and will level with you in a manner reminiscent of your school
teacher. And if she is a sharp dresser and super assertive, then visions of
Miranda Priestly’s devilish antics from ‘The Devil Wears Prada’ begin to colour
all interactions with shades of the deliberate nastiness, verbal abusiveness
and alpha female persona. However, there are some thoughts her characterisation
leaves us with: That confident, competent women intimidate their teams and
Assertive, no-nonsense intolerance for incompetence is seen less as raising the
bar, more as detrimental to confidence-building and great performance. All
bosses are not Miranda Priestlys, but the intimidation with sharp dressers and
the apparent confusion between ‘assertiveness’ and ‘aggression’ still
continues.
The author is chief talent officer and sr.
VP–HR, Essar Group 
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