How Emotional Stereotypes Of Women Come To Play In The Workplace

Written by Shannon McManus, Culture Staff Writer

If you cry in an argument, you are weak. If you get excited about something small to others, you are annoying. If you express disappointment or anger, you are exaggerating. Women are often considered crazy, especially in positions of power or their place of work, simply for existing.

In 2019, a political journalist tweeted about Senator Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez saying, “I’ll say it: @AOC’s frequent crying only reinforces the stereotype that women are too emotional for politics,” causing a Twitter thread of Cortez coming to defend herself and her political agenda (Price, 2019). Many of the responses to Cortez’s defense only affirmed the journalist’s view of how people believe in this gendered political stereotype.

Yet, it seems that a woman in political positions of power can never win. Back in the 2016 Presidential Election, Hillary Clinton was rather called out for being too unemotional. Causing her to share with the Humans of New York, “I know that I can be perceived as aloof or cold or unemotional. But I had to learn as a young woman to control my emotions. And that’s a hard path to walk. Because you need to protect yourself, you need to keep steady, but at the same time, you don’t want to seem “walled off” (Humans of New York, 2016).

In the 2020 Vice Presidential Debate, Vice President Kamala Harris had to watch her words and her emotions in order to be perceived favorably. If she responded with a tone or anger, she would have been labeled as crazy or overemotional, two things deemed unsatisfactory for Vice Presidential nominees. Yet, she was interrupted 10 times within the event, twice the number of times that she interrupted Vice President Mike Pence (Cady). She wasn’t able to show emotion from those interruptions, or she would’ve been labeled as angry and mad. This one occasion exemplifies so many of the experiences that women feel today.

Harris faced even more pressure because of her race. Black women are put in an even more difficult position because they have to prove themselves past the stereotypes of both their race and their gender. As a woman of color, Harris knew she needed to be especially careful of how she would be perceived.

Similar to Harris in the Vice Presidential debate, women outside of the political sphere are not taken seriously in the workplace, constantly having to prove their worth and ability around male counterparts, especially if they are women of color. Yet, if they address concerns about this, they are labeled dramatic. A recent TikTok from a female student showed her experience with boys interrupting and ignoring her responses and ideas in STEM classes (Hosey, 2020). The comments were filled with remarks of agreement and shared experiences, showing how this problem resonates with so many women. Women are dismissed because they are considered too emotional and therefore not as capable as men.

Yet, women and men are not truly that different when it comes to their actual emotions, in fact, one study shows that women tend to be less expressive in their anger than men (McDuff, et al). And where emotional responses do differ it shows that women tend to universally show more expression when they experience happiness or excitement. However, both excitement and happiness are not the central emotion in the stereotype of women.

Traditional stereotypes point out that women with emotion cannot be deemed logical or strong. In workplaces, women must constantly prove they are smart and have logical answers. This is seen especially in STEM fields, where women have to prove that they are smart enough to be trusted and listened to in a male-dominated field. In the public eye, women have to “keep it cool” without showing too much passion because that makes the public believe they are too emotional and therefore cannot be trusted to be sound or concrete.

Women are considered crazy if they do the same thing that a man would only be called focused, confused or even devoted to. It is easy to default to calling a woman crazy because it allows men to regain control, to make it seem like the situation is the woman’s fault (O’Malley, 2019). We should not be ignored because of the stereotypes associated with our emotions. People need to learn that people can have both emotion and logic. Emotion does not make you less qualified, less intelligent or “crazy.”

Women deserve to be seen and heard and not considered crazy. At this point, women are expected to not show any emotion that may be deemed unsatisfactory, even if it’s a valid experienced emotion. This is incredibly negative when it comes to women in the workplace who are often looked down upon and taken less seriously because of their emotions. This is not only unfair but is also backed by an inaccurate and outdated view of female feelings and abilities. Today, we must embrace the intelligence, passion and experiences of women, specifically in their place of work in order to rightfully allow space for women and their abilities.

Sources:

Rachel Hosie,. “A Science Student Recorded a Work Call to Show How Often Women in STEM Are Interrupted by Men, and the TikTok Went Viral.” Business Insider, October 2, 2020.