ABSTRACT
In Chapter 14, Brenda Bauer focuses her discussion of the clinical case on the complex relationships women have with power structures, and with one another, around authority and the development of leadership capacities. She begins by raising the question of what kind of work atmosphere, or culture, would support the idea that ambitious women, with leadership capacity, should focus on softening their aggressiveness. Noting the way in which women are set up to collude with larger power structures, Bauer takes issue with the set-up of a more senior woman, Claire, being asked to mentor a younger woman, with the goal of softening the hard edges of her younger colleague. Bauer concentrates on this part of Claire’s story as the most climactic and most potentiating of change.
