Anne Hathaway Says the Tough Thing We've All Thought About Female Bosses

Anne Hathaway is getting honest about sexism in the workplace—and not just on the part of her male colleagues, but also her own.

In an interview with Popcorn With Peter Travers, Hathaway admits that she sometimes questioned director Lone Scherfig's vision on the set of their 2011 film One Day–and she fears it was because Scherfig is a woman.

"I’m so scared that I treated her with internalized misogyny," Hathaway says.

"I’m scared that I didn’t give her everything that she needed or I was resisting her on some level. It’s something that I’ve thought a lot about in terms of when I get scripts to be directed by women."

It takes a brave woman to speak openly about something like this. As women, we are just as susceptible to societally-induced misogyny as men—we're just not expected to admit it.

(For the record: A rep for Scherfig has said she has "love and admiration for Anne and her work.")

 

I once had a conversation with a friend who said her female boss failed to congratulate her and fellow female colleagues who had recently gotten promotions. She insisted this kind of thing would never happen with a male boss.

I agreed with her—but pointed out her boss's coldness was probably due to the fact that women are socialized to compete with each other.

Yes, that boss shouldn't have reacted that way to a colleague's success—but can she be blamed totally? Or are there larger factors at stake here?

Charlize Theron, fellow actor and a producer on Netflix's new series Girlboss, also sees the toll this kind of thing takes on relationships between women in the workplace.

Men, she says, are forgiven more easily at work, whereas women are treated more harshly—partially because women aren't always supportive of each other.

"I don't like that. We keep talking about that but we're sometimes the worst enemy of other females and we have to change that."

It's an issue that's clearly on Hathaway's mind. But she's right—it's important to talk about, and hopefully, more and more women start to feel comfortable doing so.

H/t: Jezebel