Double Bind

“I’m either a bitch or a bimbo.”

So said Carly Fiorina, the high-profile former CEO of Hewlett Packard, describing
a phenomenon social scientists call “ambivalent sexism.” When women face ambivalent
sexism, they sometimes have to choose between being liked but not respected, or
being respected but not liked. In these situations women face complex political
dynamics that don’t affect men.

When ambivalent sexism is at work, women who adhere to traditionally feminine roles
meet with benevolent approval—but are not seen as go-getters. Women who don’t adhere
to feminine scripts are respected but seen as having personality problems. When
this occurs, women are called to task for behavior that is seen as unobjectionable
in their male colleagues—sometimes called the “he’s assertive, she’s aggressive”
syndrome. Another example of the same pattern is when self-promotion is seen as
inappropriate in women (“she’s a shameless self-promoter”) but appropriate in men
(“he knows his own worth”). Double binds also arises in the context of anger: workplace
displays of anger raise the status of men but lower that of women.