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Alpha females battle: learning to wield power, professionally (video example)
Alpha females are fewer in numbers than alpha males.
Women simply don't have as many incentives as men have to climb up power hierarchies, and their groups tend to be flatter and not as hierarchical as men's.
But, alas, alpha females do exist.
And when you see them interacting with each other, battling for power, it's a true feast of power moves.
It's especially good to learn from alpha females because they tend to be more indirect and polished than their male counterparts, which makes their moves especially well suited for professional settings and for higher-class crowds -think of invite-only clubs and old money-.
Notice Joan's use of power in the first scene.
When she goes to the group of men she says:
Joan: "I SUGGEST you pick your tents elsewhere".
She's not really suggesting it, she's telling them to move.
And her voice tonality says that she's telling them to move right now. But, again, she doesn't need to express that verbally.
Using indirect language and voice tonality to wield power makes her come across as higher class and more socially polished. That makes her the true queen of the office.
Had she used a more direct expression, for example: "guys, move out of here, right now", she would have come across as overly aggressive and overpowering, too rough around the edges.
People would have jumped on that opportunity to call her a "bitch", "hag" and "a bad manager unsuited to hold any position of authority". And, eventually, she would have lost power.
Also, she would have put herself at the same level of the guys, making her lose in femininity. With direct language, even if she kept her position, she would have become just another bossy boss -not "the queen" anymore-.
Eventually, Jane gets the upper hand on Joan by marrying the king, though.
Notice how Jane gets back her revenge.
She delivers several hits.
The last one is when she's asking Joan for "a favor". Again, it's not really a favor, she's tasking her to do it. She's rubbing in Joan's face that she is now the higher-ranked woman, and she is now tasking her to do things for her "one of the girls". It's as if she was saying "you're just a mother hen".
Jane gets to get her revenge right in the same place where Joan last fired her.
Ah, isn't revenge sweet :).
