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Culture January 3, 2017
Carrie Keagan was first to be fired on 'Celebrity Apprentice'For a perfect example of why women struggle to support each other in the workplace, just watch NBC’s “The Celebrity Apprentice.”
The opening episode showed the women’s team too hell-bent on cattiness, sabotage and bitchy in-fighting to focus on the task at hand and, as such, they were beaten by the men’s team in the first two business challenges – creating a presentation for the new Tyra Banks cosmetics line and a promotional video for Trident gum.
Host Arnold Schwarzenegger swiftly terminated contestants Carnie Wilson and Carrie Keagan leaving the women’s team low on numbers and morale and even lower on team spirit.
READ MORE: The Women of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s ‘New Celebrity Apprentice’
This is one reality show that is sadly proving all too real because the way these women undermine each other is a pattern reflected in far too many workplaces.
As former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright once noted, in a quote so popular it ended up on a Starbucks cup, there is “a special place in hell for women who don’t help other women.”
But this backstabbing behavior is a recurring pattern that social scientists have noted for generations. So why is it still happening in 2017?
Successful women at the top in the business world often refuse to give a helping hand up the corporate ladder to other women in their industry because they see them as a threat, according to research conducted at Olin Business School in St.Louis. The report’s author, Professor Michelle Duguid, wrote, “Competitive threat is the fear that a highly qualified female candidate might be more qualified, competent or accepted than you are.”
READ MORE: Why the Word ‘Competition’ Isn’t a Dirty Word After All
Executive coach Lisa Quast claims women are conditioned from childhood to fight with each other for success. She told Forbes that women have often tried to undermine her, saying, “The higher I climbed in corporate America, the more I seemed to become a target for other women’s hatred and anger, which shocked and horrified me.”
Psychologist Jean Rosenberg, co-author of “Mean Girls, Meaner Women” believes bad behavior women display towards each other is “embedded in women, psychologically, culturally and socially.”
In one British survey, women claimed that men in the workplace are “less prone to moods” and “more straight talking.”
READ MORE: Why Being a Decisive Woman Matters
Women are newer to mentoring than men, who have been mentoring other men for so long. There are also too few female role models in power positions. But this is where the women of “The Celebrity Apprentice” have a big opportunity.
If they can just pull together over the coming weeks and work together in harmony rather than hostility they have a chance to show the way forward to so many other women by demonstrating what is truly possible when teamwork replaces backstabbing.
Their only other option is to continue to get fired one by one and hand victory to the men.
