The TV personality has worked with many females during her career.
By Maricar Santos, Working Mother
By Maricar Santos, Working Mother
Workplaces with plenty of women are often thought of as breeding grounds for jealousy, competition, sabotage and cattiness by some, but take it from one TV personality who has worked with many females during her career: you can gain a lot from these relationships, so be supportive!
In a new interview with POPSUGAR, Big Brother host and The Talk
co-host and moderator Julie Chen shares what it's been like for her to
have female bosses, co-hosts, news anchors and producers over the years.
Julie, who is also a mom to son Charlie, 9, used to be the anchor of CBS Morning News and the news anchor for CBS This Morning and The Early Show,
which she also co-hosted.
[post_ads]"I think the most refreshing thing about working with women is that there's this girl club mentality when we're together as a group. It's like this exclusive club where we cackle and laugh, and bond, and gossip, and we talk about gross things that guys don't want to talk about," she says.
[post_ads]"I think the most refreshing thing about working with women is that there's this girl club mentality when we're together as a group. It's like this exclusive club where we cackle and laugh, and bond, and gossip, and we talk about gross things that guys don't want to talk about," she says.
For Julie, the benefit of supporting other women is making
friends and learning from them. Early in her career, she says she even
complimented reporter Tracey Smith who had filled in for her one day at CBS Morning News, and that they're still friends. She also says she's learned things from her co-hosts on The Talk, like knowledge about LGBT issues, from Sarah Gilbert, and black culture, from Sheryl Underwood.
That's
not to say she thinks the stereotypes about women working together are
completely false. In the interview, she reveals that during the early
years of The Talk, she and her fellow cohosts would often get
asked about how they were able to get along. "Stereotypes are not made
up out of thin air. They're based on some grain of truth, but when you
keep getting asked four or five years in, it becomes insulting.
I think we took the high road. The proof is in the pudding; you see us on TV every day. The camera doesn't lie. But for the first two or three years, people thought it was an act. Finally, people stopped asking, because they saw there was no story there."
I think we took the high road. The proof is in the pudding; you see us on TV every day. The camera doesn't lie. But for the first two or three years, people thought it was an act. Finally, people stopped asking, because they saw there was no story there."
She adds, "I feel like I am in a lucky, fortunate, and unique
position because of who I work with and what I do for a living. Every
day we set an example. Although lots of men like our show, our viewers
are mostly women.
I feel like we are helping break stereotypes on a
daily basis, chipping away at them by showing that we are a fun, diverse
group of women to hang out with, who are not catty and petty and
small-minded and insecure. I love working with women—because no one
understands a woman like another woman."
[post_ads_2]
Having had such a great
experience with female colleagues, she has some advice to young women
who are starting their careers. "You're going to win more people who are
rooting for you if you show support and kindness to others. I think a
lot of women, when they're young—and they're insecure, and they're just
finding out how to deal with office politics—make the assumption that
other women are cutthroat and trying to get ahead of them."
Her
advice is especially important today, because if women still hold onto
to the belief that other women are catty, they won't be able to support
each other's paths to success. With so few women in senior management, they need all the support they can get.
Read more from Working Mother:
