Are there etiquette rules for how women should behave in business?
I think boundaries are important with etiquette rules for how women should behave in business. I think we need to speak up more, Say yes and no more, both of those, instead of thinking we'll do things, and then resenting it. It's also been my own research that we've done over the years, that if a woman is in a board room meeting, and there's a big fight in the board room, the men have a way of going to lunch, and just forgetting about it. Whereas if there's a woman in the room, and she gets in a fight with the guys, she doesn't always want to go to lunch. I think women need to bounce back a little faster. I think we need to be a little stronger, and if we're going to play with the big boys, we need to fit into the workplace a little more coherently, and not get our feelings hurt quite as much. So, in terms of boundaries, I think we need to be very clear about what our boundaries are, but there's a line that women cross, about being tough. That still bothers me. I think we can be strong, but still be compassionate in the workplace, without being considered a "tough gal", and have some fun and relax. We just haven't gotten there yet. It takes a while for the pendulum to swing, and we're still working on it. I do think women need to stand up and be given more authority, so they can assign more work to others, and that's going to take a while. We're getting there, slowly, but were not there yet in terms of etiquette for how women should behave in business.
