Maven: CEO Dearest

You've come a long way, baby, The Business Press Maven is happy to say, but I've seen next to no evidence of it in the business press. After a week in which Martha Stewart's (MSO) company reported narrowed losses and Xerox (XRX), led by a woman, reported continued losses, let's take a look at the way coverage of women taps into old notions of gender roles, leading investors astray in the process.

But be sure: The Business Press Maven, who carries the banner of no cause save for the investor's wallet, is not claiming that these old notions tended to lead to overly negative coverage.

Quite the contrary. In fact, more than half of the time, coverage of high-profile businesswomen is overly positive. More specifically, it is slavish, condescending, worshipful, giddy, gullible and horrible. Ask me more sometime and I'll tell you how I really feel.

The other half of the time, the woman is portrayed as a cross between a witch and a shrew, with little attention given to managerial capabilities, strategies or long-term results.

Before I get to which women have been loved and which loathed, let's look at why businesswomen, more than men, receive such schizophrenic coverage.

Reporters always look at issues, creating lines of questioning, as well as story lines, from all the notions floating around in their psyche. And though it sounds funny, it is true: What we tend to see in the coverage of accomplished female business leaders is a variation of the Madonna/whore complex.

They are perfect. Or they are bad girls, too awful for words. But we'll say it in a 1,000-word piece.

In terms of perfection, think of Carleton "Carly" Fiorina, the former head of Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) who was worshipped like a pharaoh for several years. Think the Cleopatra of the business world, a low point of modern business press coverage and as sanctimonious as coverage of any recent businesswoman has been. Despite all the panting coverage, Fiorina eventually ran Hewlett-Packard aground and was booted out, just as, interestingly enough, Cleopatra was from Egypt.