Powerful Women Talk About Power and Powerlessness

Studies of hiring bias in dozens of professions (musicians, artists, pilots, biologists, bankers) have shown that people, men and women alike, judge women gunning for power as somehow diseased. Madeline Heilman at New York University gave out identical resumes for “Andrea” and “James,” saying only that these applicants were “rising stars” in their field. Andrea was judged as “downright uncivil,” Heilman wrote, although there was no information at all given about her personality. In a Cut article, the author stated, “there are a few forms of female power that don’t seem to violate anyone’s sense of norms: sex or beauty, the witchy power of the dispossessed. This quote and the entirety of the article made me think about the ideal bodies of men and women in the media and the large disconnect that genders are portrayed in the media. The example of the women being judged by simply her resume and being called “downright uncivil” is a perfect depiction of the way in which genders are stereotyped and treated throughout all media outlets. Women are constantly being portrayed as perfect, thin, fragile beings that exist at side of a male. This article made me think about the way in which the ideal women is portrayed in the media when it comes to power. For example, Hillary Clinton is powerful at the expense of her husband, but alone she can also be powerful. The media constantly critiqued Hillary Clinton as not being feminine enough. This kind of thinking and critique is a product of the type of bodies and characteristics that women portray in the media.