Living Dangerously - Issue 34

A group of women has finally figured out how to succeed in a man's world: Change it into a woman's world. (For men who dare to read this, at the end I offer a few ideas on how to survive in this new world of leadership.)

Over the years, women have tried everything to succeed in business: fitting in; biding their time in order to rise in an organization; taking shelter in pink-collar ghettos. They've finally found an approach that works: forming "girl gangs."

It should have been an obvious solution. After all, secret societies have long been a source of power. Think of Mao in 1928, making his home in the mountains, far from the political mainstream. Living in a secret society taught him the power of abiding by your own rules. He learned a kind of leadership that eventually toppled centuries of Chinese tradition -- the equivalent of overthrowing the status quo that reigns in most old-line organizations. Mao also learned the importance of overthrowing his own organization. He identified himself with the Lords of Misrule, an institution common to medieval European festivals in which the apprentices took over their masters' guilds for a day or two. (In some festivals, the practice was for women to take over the regular duties of men.) Mao took the institution of misrule seriously.

Girl-gang members are the new mistresses of misrule. Their very existence subverts the laws of organizations. I talked with members of a girl gang that is based inside a major organization. The women involved have sworn me to secrecy: I can't reveal their names or the name of the company. "It would only hurt us if we emphasized the female nature of our group," says the gang's founder. "We're trying to be extremely discreet. You can imagine the ramifications of public attention at a place like [company X]."

Female teams like hers are not unique. Every day, 1,000 businesses are started by women in the United States. Most are small, and many begin with an all-female staff. While the assumption is that over time, those businesses will become integrated, some research reveals that perhaps women would be better off if things stayed the way they are at their companies.

Consider a study of the best predictors of female success, published in 1999. In the study, researcher M. Elizabeth Tidball surveyed entries from "Who's Who of American Women" to find out what women who are college presidents, award-winning scientists, and high-ranking corporate officers have in common. The answer: The most successful women in history have gone to schools with predominantly female faculties. Women are most successful when they spend their formative career years isolated from men.

Is this a brilliant business model for women today? Or is it "Lord of the Flies" for girls? Or is it both?

The leader of the all-female team with whom I spoke had been working very well in a group of dozens of high-achieving men. But there was one problem: "I was very lonely," she says. "I'd been working with men at X for seven years when another job offer came along. I accepted it. When the head of my division found out about my decision, he came to see me -- something that he had never done before. He said, 'They can't be offering you as much money as we pay you. How much are they offering?' Money was his yardstick for happiness. When I told him what the other company had offered me, he was blown away. He said, 'Maybe you should go.' My female boss, however, intervened. She said, 'What's wrong? What do you want?' I responded, 'I want to work with women.' And she said, 'Stay. Start your own department. Hire whomever you want.' "

And that was the genesis of this particular girl gang. The leader built a department of five women, all of whom report to her. The change was immediate: The loneliness, the isolation, vanished. Just as important, the quality of the work changed and improved. The job took on new meaning.

These women make their own rules, and that alone gives them a sense of control over their own destiny. Says the team leader: "We don't start working until 9:30 AM, because we need to get our kids off to school in the morning. Problems are not problems when you can create your own solutions. We work with an integrated group in another city. The men in that group insist on holding 9 AM board meetings. We've told them not to expect us before 10 AM. It's not that we don't work hard. We do -- but on our own terms."

Girl gangs offer protection against the larger world. Strength comes in unity, not diversity. The leader of this all-female team says, "We are all there for one another. We look after one another, help one another. I'm so happy."

The organizing principle of this girl gang is love, and love brings out the best in any person. There is a lack of inhibition when the leader describes her group. Her tone is blissful. For her to express that much love suggests that she, in turn, must also be getting a tremendous supply of it.