CHAPTER FIVE

indirect, emotions,and tears (oh, my!)

Don’t wait until you get the powerful career to inhabit the space of a powerful person.

—Marianne Williamson

AFTER COUNTLESS wine-fueled conversations with girlfriends on whether they preferred working for a man or a woman—and, frankly, not liking what I was hearing—I decided the topic was going to be a cornerstone of the research for this book. So when I surveyed 700+ (presumably sober) executive women and asked them the same question—“Would you rather work for a man or a woman?”—the responses were also disturbing.

First, the good news: More than half of the respondents (56 percent) said gender didn’t matter. Here’s a snapshot of their comments:

I want a smart boss.”

My preference depends ...

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