It’s very rare that a news story (especially one that doesn’t have to do with the election) gets me all raged up, but this one did. From the Toronto Globe and Mail no less, and I expect better of you, Canada!
It’s a story about how mompreneurs can backstab each because they sometimes get cutthroat in building their business
This story managed to patronize on several different and actually conflicting levels. First, I find the term mompreneurs dismissive. It demeans women trying to find a way to leverage their talents in order to combine work and motherhood with a cutesy phrase and makes it sound like they’re running lemonade stands.
Secondly, I find it so annoying when people write about how women are so evil and backstabby as if such behavior is an exclusively female trait. God knows I have worked with my share of sneaky women, but I’ve had equally as many childish and egomaniacal male bosses. And the women I have known who fit that stereotype are that way because they are two-faced, nasty, insecure people, not because they are women. Cattiness is a feline trait, not a female one.
And finally, the writer pretty much expresses shock that those catty women could be like, well, men in that we are competitive and want to build our business. One mom quoted said that mompreneurs should be helping each other and working together, not trying to take things away from each other.
Sure, yeah, it’s unethical and crappy to take an idea someone shared with you and run with it, but if you have any business savvy at all you realize it’s a risk when you share your big idea with someone in a similar line of work. I have trusted work confidants, but they are usually people who are successful enough in their own right they don’t need to be stealing ideas and contacts from me, not to mention savvy enough to understand that if you do such a thing, word gets around and a bad reputation is impossible to live down.
Soooo, we’re not supposed to be catty and backstabbing like a bunch of women, but not be competitive and business savvy like a man. Um, where does that leave us exactly?
