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After 30 years in HR I've about seen it all.

My best boss was a wonderful woman and my mentor. We also had a female attorney that I considered highly competent and also a mentor.

However, my worst boss was also a woman. Clinical bi-polar, unmedicated. Divide and conquer. Paranoia. Don't want to go there. Had to quit that job because of her. Eventually she was fired (after the men she was playing up to finally started thinking with the right head and figured her out).

I'm just saying that many (though certainly not the majority) of men's selections of women over better qualified men don't have to do with qualifications for the work on the job, but more of a kneejerk reaction to "T&A" and because such women will often tell them what they want to hear rather than the truth.

The women some of the other posters are describing (pros at manipulation and office politics) probably got their jobs by the above method. That WAS their qualifications.

And, having been HR advisor to a large number of female supervisors over a good many years, I haven't really found any more "rivalry" among them and their subordinates than with men and men. Of course, it does happen among both, and there is also crossover between the sexes.

Now the micro-manager thing, yes, I think a lot of female managers engage in that and mostly for the reason I stated above: bosses are more apt to beat up on the females (verbally) when things go wrong whether it's their fault or not, while they are more apt to side with males.

What were Monica's qualifications?