Sexism in the Workplace—When Women Hurt Other Women

What happens when sexism in the workplace comes from other women? In the past, I’ve written that sexism still exists and that one way to combat it is for women to help each other. But one recent event in particular highlights the fact that some women are decidedly not looking out for other women—and in fact, seem to be doing things to damage our collective reputation in the workplace.

What happened? South Carolina’s first woman governor called a female reporter a “little girl” over an article detailing some $127,000 in taxpayer dollars that the governor and other state officials allegedly spent on a European economic development trip. In a syndicated radio talk show interview recently, Governor Nikki Haley was asked about the article which was written by 25-year-old Renee Dudley and appeared in The Post and Courier of Charleston.

Her exact comment? “All I will tell you is: God bless that little girl at The Post and Courier. I mean, her job is to try and create conflict. My job is to create jobs. In the end I’m going to have jobs to show for it.” The details surrounding the story are unimportant. Should she have been upset? I have no idea and frankly I don’t care.

What I find objectionable is that a female in a top government position used a gender slur (“that little girl”) when referring to another woman professional. And even more objectionable is that the governor is the first female to hold that title in the state and the “little girl” was an award-winning journalist. She did exactly what most women in business fight against when she launched a sexist, personal attack rather than simply responding to the story. She should have known better.

In a follow-up remark, Haley still blasted the story, but said she shouldn’t have used the personal remark. “The story painted a grossly inaccurate picture and was unprofessionally done, but my `little girl’ comment was inappropriate and I regret that,” Haley said. “Everyone can have a bad day. I’ll forgive her bad story, if she’ll forgive my poor choice of words.” Not much of an apology in my book.

And this isn’t the only action Haley has taken that shows her lack of support for women in business. A similar outcry came when, shortly after taking office, she replaced the only woman serving on the University of South Carolina board—with a male campaign donor. The woman she replaced is none other than Darla Moore, a wealthy investor. Not only is she the school’s biggest donor but more importantly the University of South Carolina’s Darla Moore School of Business bears her name (By the way, it is the only or one of the only business schools in the country named after a female). I understand the importance of politicians’ rewarding their donors, but the price of this reward was another strong woman’s board seat.

I am not trying to make a political statement here. Whether Haley is a republican or a democrat is immaterial. But she does provide a stark example of how our own words and actions can harm other women (and us) if we are not careful. Women can and do sometimes fall into gender stereotyping without thinking about it. We need to remember, however, that we will only win if we stop sabotaging ourselves.

By Erin Wolf