Why this 2015 movie is still relevant today?
By Tanmayee W
This is 2017. The era which shall famously be remembered as the time when women chose career over marriage and multiple promotions over having kids. The literary metaphor ‘shatter the glass ceiling’ seems have been shattered with an astounding noise! Year on year, we have been witnessing women doing consistently well in the IAS exams. We have PV Sindhu making the country proud in the badminton courts around the world. We can boast of women directors like Gauri Shinde showing us how a story can compellingly told! The last time I travelled by air, I was pleased to know that a woman pilot was responsible for my flying 850 kilometers from Mumbai to Bangalore.
Yet, I feel that these brave women might just be anomalies in the fabric of the society that is so entrenched in stereotypes. It is necessary to let our young girls know that being a ‘female leader’ is nothing to do with being a ‘female’ but only to do with being a leader. Just as we have no such thing as a male CEO, there should not be any need for a ‘female’ CEO. A CEO is a CEO! Period. The gender part has nothing to do with it. The concept of ‘female- something’ is just too contrived.
Over the past few days, I caught up on a 2015 movie “The Intern” starring Anne Hathaway and Robert DeNiro. Being a Hathaway and DeNiro fan, I wanted to watch it since a long time and Netflix proved to be a genie in disguise! The movie is set in scenic Brooklyn, a borough of New York where Hathaway’s character Jules has set up her own shop — an e commerce company selling women accessories and clothes. She is shown as a hands on startup founder who is completely committed to her passion — to run a business independently as a founder without a ‘male’ CEO watching her back with a hawk’s eye — as her VC later suggests. For the uninitiated, VC is a popular shortened version of Venture Capital firms which are responsible for funding a startup at the initial stages, closely monitoring its growth and ensuring the venture turns profitable and starts paying back the initial investment. DeNiro’s character Ben aged 70 years, is hired as an ‘intern’ as a part of ‘Senior Intern program” the first of its kind at the startup. Both the characters complement each other as the story shows the stark differences in the leadership and the management style today versus the 1980s -1990s, when Ben led a company, back in his heydays.
The movie throws open interesting arguments worth thinking about; the most important being — Do we tend to undermine ‘female’ startup founders as compared to their ‘male’ counterparts? I made few pertinent observations and took away important lessons from the movie.
- “I know how to run a business” is not taken seriously.
Jules is a passionate hard worker. A believer in her dreams, she knows her business in and out. She loves being the one calling shots at work. Her dedication and hands on approach in directly dealing with her customers makes her a ‘roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty’ kind of a leader. Her leadership style is inclusive and participative. Yet her credibility is questioned by her VC constantly when sales tumble and business falters. Her ” I can handle this and come out of it” is met with doubt and lack of certainty.
2. A falling business can be fixed only by a man.
Jules is made to meet couple of men who could help resurrect the falling business and provide a direction to the lost management. The VC believes that these successful men already running multi million business can help Jules out — a classic ‘damsel in distress’ scenario playing out in the professional world.
3. A successful woman is a bad mother.
When occasionally, Jules drops her daughter off at her school, she is met with cold stares and hushed whispers. She is made to be felt as an outcast. So, woman who can take care of her kid and also manage to take charge of her career becomes a vile woman who is devoid of any maternal instincts! A woman who does well for herself is put down by another woman who couldn’t do it herself. How ironic!
4. A successful woman is a bad wife too.
Jules’ husband is a stay home dad who willingly supports her wife when she decides to live her dream and start a company from scratch. Unfortunately, he decides to ‘prove’ his manliness by resorting to infidelity! Why can’t women at the top have it all and why do they have to make a choice every time?
5. A woman has to be constantly told what to do.
Jules’ mother, her VC and her colleague who advises her on strategic plans for the company constantly throw around pieces of advice which are unwarranted for. Why? Jules is a woman and women need help all the time even if they don’t ask for it. Duh!
6. A woman is made to doubt her capabilities every time.
Towards the end of the movie, Jules is faced by the quintessential dilemma — Choose breaking marriage over her business and handover the reins of her business to a new CEO. It is the moral dilemma faced by almost every woman of this century — Choose family over work or work over family. Jules almost believes that the onus of saving her marriage lies on her and giving up her business to another person to handle it is the only solution to be able to do that. This is when Ben talks some sense into her and makes her realize that her startup is her dream and passion. Another person may not be able to do justice to her dreams. And how will it anyway solve problems at her home? Why do women fault themselves for whatever wrong happens in their lives?
I like to leave my readers with some questions to explore on their own. I want all of you to think about the ways we can make women feel welcome in the business world. What is it that we can do to increase female participation at all levels within an organization? How do we support women starting out on their own? When do we transition from ‘she boss’ to just ‘boss’? Very soon, I hope.
Picture credits — Google Images
