I have “spoken out of turn” many times in my career. As a child, I was the one who brought home stray animals and stood up for my friends when they were bullied at school, always speaking out against injustice and inequality. However, in the work place, how acceptable is this behavior, especially when coming from a woman, in any male dominated industry?

I have worked in the entertainment industry for 50 years now and I believe most of us know this industry, like so many others, is misogynistic. I once had an Entertainment Director say to me, “You are a drama queen.” This coming from a man who was notorious for stirring the pot in the office, so when I called him out on his comment, stating he would never call a male associate a “drama queen”,  when arguing their point of view, he agreed with me and said, “You are a woman. You just can’t say those things.”  Yes … that was the actual reply.

I have never backed down from an argument and I fight for what I know to be right, or at least right for me and my business and my company. Many women like me have endured the “Drama Queen” name calling in the workplace, and much worse. It is only recently that I have come to see this as a badge of honor. I wear my reputation proudly when I hear “she is difficult to work with”, because I know I am no more difficult to work with than my male counterpart who is admired for “sticking to his guns.”

When I read the Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson and Dylan Baker, I was stunned realizing how similar my thinking was to his. It was as if I was reading my own thoughts. This book became an affirmation for my own career and everything I have stood for, spoken out for, and fought for, these past 30 years especially. When I shared this opinion with a male associate, he said if Jobs had been a woman, he would have never succeeded in creating the Apple brand we know today. Wow. Really? I ruminated on that thought for a very long time, knowing he was right, but wondering what women like myself can do in order to change this perception? Are we living in a time in which it is just still too early for females to assimilate effectively into a power position? After all, it’s only been 43 years since Katherine Graham became the first female CEO of a Fortune 500 company. In those 43 years, how far have we come? Well, only 5.3% of the Fortune 1000 has females in their top position.

I would love to hear from strong-minded executive women, like myself, who never shy away from confrontation in the workplace when fighting to be heard, or when expressing their point of view, and ideas. The majority of women in the workplace today remain middle managers, so what has been their experience? I’m not interested in discussing “the boys club”, or bashing the male labor force, as I have worked with outstanding men throughout my career, finding them to be the majority, not the minority. What I do want to discuss is your thoughts concerning what we have to do to change the perception of women who speak up as being “drama queens”. What is your opinion?