A group of women has finally figured out how to succeed in a man’s world: Change it into a woman’s world. (For men who dare to read this, at the end I offer a few ideas on how to survive in this new world of leadership.)
Over the years, women have tried everything to succeed in business: fitting in; biding their time in order to rise in an organization; taking shelter in pink-collar ghettos. They’ve finally found an approach that works: forming “girl gangs.”
It should have been an obvious solution. After all, secret societies have long been a source of power. Think of Mao in 1928, making his home in the mountains, far from the political mainstream. Living in a secret society taught him the power of abiding by your own rules. He learned a kind of leadership that eventually toppled centuries of Chinese tradition — the equivalent of overthrowing the status quo that reigns in most old-line organizations. Mao also learned the importance of overthrowing his own organization. He identified himself with the Lords of Misrule, an institution common to medieval European festivals in which the apprentices took over their masters’ guilds for a day or two. (In some festivals, the practice was for women to take over the regular duties of men.) Mao took the institution of misrule seriously.
Girl-gang members are the new mistresses of misrule. Their very existence subverts the laws of organizations. I talked with members of a girl gang that is based inside a major organization. The women involved have sworn me to secrecy: I can’t reveal their names or the name of the company. “It would only hurt us if we emphasized the female nature of our group,” says the gang’s founder. “We’re trying to be extremely discreet. You can imagine the ramifications of public attention at a place like [company X].”
像她这样的女队并不独特。每天，美国妇女创办了1,000家企业。大多数很小，许多人从全女性工作人员开始。尽管随着时间的流逝，这些企业将变得整合，但一些研究表明，如果事情保持在公司的方式，女性也许会更好。
Consider a study of the best predictors of female success, published in 1999. In the study, researcher M. Elizabeth Tidball surveyed entries from “Who’s Who of American Women” to find out what women who are college presidents, award-winning scientists, and high-ranking corporate officers have in common. The answer: The most successful women in history have gone to schools with predominantly female faculties. Women are most successful when they spend their formative career years isolated from men.
这是当今女性的出色商业模式吗？还是女孩的“苍蝇之王”？还是两个？
The leader of the all-female team with whom I spoke had been working very well in a group of dozens of high-achieving men. But there was one problem: “I was very lonely,” she says. “I’d been working with men at X for seven years when another job offer came along. I accepted it. When the head of my division found out about my decision, he came to see me — something that he had never done before. He said, ‘They can’t be offering you as much money as we pay you. How much are they offering?’ Money was his yardstick for happiness. When I told him what the other company had offered me, he was blown away. He said, ‘Maybe you should go.’ My female boss, however, intervened. She said, ‘What’s wrong? What do you want?’ I responded, ‘I want to work with women.’ And she said, ‘Stay. Start your own department. Hire whomever you want.’ “
And that was the genesis of this particular girl gang. The leader built a department of five women, all of whom report to her. The change was immediate: The loneliness, the isolation, vanished. Just as important, the quality of the work changed and improved. The job took on new meaning.
这些妇女制定自己的规则，仅凭这一规则就使她们对自己的命运有一种控制感。团队负责人说：“我们要等到上午9:30才开始工作，因为我们需要在早上让孩子们上学。当您可以创建自己的解决方案时，问题不是问题。我们与另一个城市的一个综合团体合作。该小组中的男子坚持举行上午9点的董事会会议。我们已经告诉他们不要在上午10点之前期待我们。并不是说我们不努力。我们做到了 - 但按照我们的条件。”
女孩帮派对更大的世界提供保护。力量是团结而不是多样性的。这个全女性团队的负责人说：“我们彼此相处。我们互相照顾，互相帮助。我太高兴了。”
这个女孩帮派的组织原则是爱，而爱则带来了任何人的最好的。当领导者描述她的小组时，缺乏抑制作用。她的语气很幸福。为了使她表达很多爱表明她又一定要获得巨大的供应。
我问她她的团队与他人有何不同。她立即回答：“我们有爱。彼此之间，我们既不嫉妒也不是领土。对我们来说，重要的是不要让我们的老板失望。她令人难以置信 - 陶醉于她的细腻感。我一生中只有另外两个成年人有这种感觉：我的兄弟和父亲。我说的是爱情，当您关心家族甚至性行为的人时。女人曾经是母亲，妻子和女儿，所以我们习惯于表达爱心。被女性包围，带来了最好的人。”
Justice is another important principle. For this woman, work has become not just a way to achieve success or meaning, but also a way to settle personal accounts. Like Mao’s guerrillas, girl gangs are out to redress old wrongs. That’s a big motivator. The gang offers strength in the fight — and enough protection to take on larger issues.
一个生活在男人世界中的妇女每一分钟都可以识别失败者。这个特定女人的工作是个人历史的问题。这是一个纠正对父母的错误的机会，她的父母必须隐藏自己的事情才能被接受。她说：“我是由一个不寻常的母亲抚养长大的。”“她有一个巨大的驼背。她说，这永远不会打扰她，因为它在她身后。而且，一生，我父亲掩盖了他是犹太人的事实。直到他去世后，我什至不知道他。他保守了如此秘密，这让我很棒。他之所以保留它，是因为他担心自己小时候面对的歧视会影响他成年的工作。 I hated the pain that my parents endured. I wanted to redeem their suffering. I guess that’s the selfish part.” The nonselfish part: “I believe that I have huge gifts to offer. And if I have women to inspire me, then I’ll use those gifts. If I create a loving environment, then I’ll be able to do big things.”
专门与女性合作有缺点吗？她说：“我们没有很多见面。”“如果这样做，我们可能会开始感觉好像没有足够的个人空间。我们的行动的男性负责人位于另一个城市，必须使我们保持纪律严明。否则，我们会聊得太多。”
对她的团队的更大危险：男人的敌意。她报告说：“他们非常嫉妒。”“我们的团队组织了一年一度的妇女晚餐，我们公司的近100名妇女参加了会议。公司中的男人偶尔会听到有关它的消息，即使我们没有做广告。一次，在我们举行会议的一家餐厅，我遇到了其中一名男子。他说：“如果公司的负责人做到这一点 - 只为男人举行晚餐 - 会有一场战争。”我回答说，‘人们已经做了几个世纪了。您知道我们的女人在这些晚餐时谈论什么吗？我们谈论圣约翰·凯特（St. John Knits）和我们的儿童学校。我们谈论的是我们无法真正在工作中提出的事情。’我们的团队知道女性，尤其是母亲，成功的事情有多艰难。男人？ Most have wives who help out with things at home. I can’t complain to them. They don’t understand me, just as I don’t understand Mandarin.”
但是最大的威胁来自组织。像X一样传统和蓝血的公司以中和任何对现状构成挑战的事物而闻名。“我们的老板了解如何推销我们的团队：只是建立它，不要对此一言不发。”这位女子面前的领导人说，他认为球队不是一个选择，而是当务之急。“看，如果我不喜欢我在做什么，我和我一起做的人，我会回家和孩子们在一起。”
Do men have anything to fear? History says no. “It has been argued that perhaps there has never been a fully and pervasively matriarchal society,” says cultural anthropologist Mary Catherine Bateson, “a society in which women have dominated at every level, as men do in some patriarchies.”
但是该组织可能有一些恐惧。X所知道的，领导才能的定义和实践很快就会改变 - 女性领导人对男性领导人构成的威胁，他们学会制定自己的规则，通过自己的优势来赚钱，证明自己对自己来说，他们的方式是最好的方法。女团伙有自己的领导品牌，在大多数现有公司中，它与普遍文化有所不同。它们对系统造成了震惊 - 使他们能够负责的冲击。
女人和男人可以如何鼓励这些帮派产生的新领导人？他们可以意识到，妇女是改革美国领导机构的唯一希望。男人需要邀请女人加入董事会。妇女必须邀请妇女进入董事会。我们应该游说让妇女从董事会至少50％女性的公司中删除投资美元。我们应该抵制女队的整合。
There is an important lesson in the Greek myth about how the sage Tiresias became blind. According to the myth, Tiresias was out walking when he saw two coupling snakes. He struck the snakes with his staff to separate them, and by divine intervention, he was turned into a woman. He lived as a woman, in a woman’s body, for years. Then, one day, he saw the snakes again. Just as he had before, he struck them. And this time, the gods turned him back into a man.
Later, when Zeus and Hera were debating whether sex was more fun for the man or the woman, they called on Tiresias for an answer. He said that the woman enjoyed sex more. Furious that he had sided with her husband, Hera blinded Tiresias.
也许这里还有另一个秘密：对于女性来说，工作也更有趣，尤其是当她们以自己的条件工作时。
Harriet Rubin（hrubin@fastcompany.com）是《妇女公主：马基雅维利的妇女》（Dell Phackback，1998年）和“独奏：实现生活的野心”的作者（Harpercollins，1999）。她还是Working Diva的总监，Diva是Ivillage（www.ivillage.com）上的新网站。