Are career women more aggressive

As more and more women are getting out of their cocoons and invading male- dominated fields, balancing homes and jobs, are they also loosing their feminine grace and becoming aggressive to prove them selves?

 Aggression, often the result of rising stress levels, is one of the perils of a modern lifestyle, and gets manifested through offensive modes of behaviour like unnecessary shouting, abusing, showing road rage, insensitivity towards others, being extremely demanding, confrontational, neglecting family needs etc. But are career women showing negative traits? If so, is the aggression a result of evolution, a deliberate stance adopted by women as a shield or is it simply an out come of circumstances, of which they themselves are victims?

 After being in the role of nurturer, she is intruding into the male bastion of being the provider. She is also juggling too many roles and trying to be perfect. However men are either confused or feel threatened by this new image and try to undermine her efforts and lower her self- esteem. In the process, the women's inner agitation may get projected as aggression.

Again there is confusion regarding the new image the woman having work interest outside home visa-a vis the traditional notion of womanhood. "At home she is expected to be educated, smart and working on one hand, and be 'homely and traditional' on the other. At the workplace, she has to be professional just like men. But when she beats others in efficiency or enthusiasm, she is termed as 'masculine' or resorting to 'other means' to reach the top. If she asks for leave to attend an ailing child, she is dubbed as unprofessional; if she leaves the child with a nanny, she is described as uncaring. So as most of the time women are balancing roles- each requiring different kind of skills, attitude and application, it leads to frayed tempers," says psychologist Dr. Seema Hingorani.

 Dr. Hingorani adds, "Women's behaviour is at times an outcome of years of oppression and restrictions. I am totally in favour of women empowerment. But women no matter how much we say should move ahead in their career, but at the same time she should maintain a balance all the time." Often a career woman is accused of neglecting family responsibilities such as not making it to her child's Annual Day or a family function. She may not have the time to prepare a five-course meal or rustle up family's favourite dish at short notice.

Today's women decide when exactly they want to start a family. Their readiness counts more than the expectations from family and friends. These sensible decisions are often misconstrued as unwillingness to go the extra mile to be accommodating. 

Workingwomen work harder to balance family and work and adapt to married life easily. They try to spend quality time with the family members. Journalist Deepali Dingra is appreciated by her editor for her brilliant story ideas and great writing skills. A brilliant student she shuns mediocrity, never compromises on quality and is intolerant of inefficiency. Her colleagues often brand her as aggressive and unreasonable and a go-getter who stops at nothing to bag plum assignments. "Good work and success are not gender specific. Every woman has the right to work for and get her due. If men perceive her as macho, which is an erroneous concept by itself, so be it," says Dr. Hingorani.

Women have to be as professional as their male counterparts. In fact, women often have to work over-time to prove their worth. So while jostling to cover a 'breaking news story', a woman is not thinking of her gender but of getting a job well done. Besides, both men and women are trampling each other to get the 'best quotes'. So why blame the fairer sex alone? Also most of the time women are not aggressive, but assertive.

Therefore, aggressiveness is not a gender specific trait. If there is greater degree of aggression at workplace today, it is an outcome of a far more competitive atmosphere. A higher degree of professionalism drives everybody to constantly strive to perform in fact out-perform one another. "With the rising demand of human resources, both partners at times behave aggressively. That's the time we live in. So while career women alone cannot be blamed for such behaviour, they themselves should not get worked up to conform to different expectations or take their economic independence too far.  It is not human to be a fantastic worker, a fantastic mother and a fantastic wife. It should be a happy mix of expectations.  Women to day should aim for B+ and not A grade in everything. Men also, on their part should be less judgmental and accept the liberated, new-age women as equal partners for greater harmony at home and at work," says author Chetan Bhagat.