Or as sweet, but stupid? B/c apparently that is a choice that women pursuing careers in academic administration ought to make, according to this article in the Times (of London) Higher Education Supplement.
(The feminist philosophers blog pointed me to it.)
Apparently, there is a wrong choice and a right choice: Likeability trumps competence.
Not only that, but likeability makes less likely that a woman will be perceived as competent, and competence makes less like that a woman will be perceived as likeable.
I have no interest in academic administration, but I sometimes wonder about issues of likeability and competence in teaching.
Blurgh. Just stick a fork in me. I am done.
I wonder about the likeability v. competence issue in teaching, too. I've been hired for classes simply because my student evals were so positive, which just means, imo, that I was well liked. I could have given them all donuts and As and gotten the same evaluations.
ReplyDeleteI do, however, think I'm also competent - but have no objective measure to point to.