I have been thinking about writing this ever since I saw the first few episodes of The Apprentice–of course Donald Trump and his comb-over aside, The Apprentice highlighted several tendencies that I have noticed about my gender that makes me sometimes embarrassed to be female–let me explain…

For anyone who has not seen the show, at the start of each season, the teams are split up by gender–men vs. women. Each episode starts with a task assigned to the team by The Don. The team picks a Project Manager who is in charge of executing the task. As I watched the first few episodes, I noticed that when the men came to play, they picked the project manager and found a way to follow him–even if they weren’t quite sure of the outcome. They would try to believe in the leadership and ultimately defer to the Project Manager on the task. Sometimes, they would have their doubts about his methods or be a little annoyed with a weak player on their team, but they appeared to try to see the good of the team and overcome obstacles to achieve the goal. On occasion, the men’s team confronted a negative team member or the occasional lazy individual in the task, which created outward conflict but all in all they pitched in and helped for the good of the task they were to accomplish. The men won 5 of 7 tasks put forth to them.

The women on the other hand picked their leader after sometimes colorful discussion or not and began the task. As they brainstormed on the task with the Project Manager and tried to share ideas, at any hint of controversy the claws came out! No cooperative behavior, they talked behind each other’s back, formed cliques, and undermined each other. This made for great reality TV! These behaviors seemed like the sport not the task to be completed. The women were caddy, and jealous of each other, and they were hard pressed to acknowledge good ideas of others in the group. I wonder why this is…Does it have something to do with each individual woman’s inner self? Are they insecure or have self esteem issues…or is it nature are women wired this way? I am not sure. The show was hard for me to watch at times as the women’s actions were childish, insincere, and mean…

Continue reading →