217. Was Miranda Priestly Actually a Good Boss?

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In the second episode in this series of conversations around The Devil Wears Prada, Julia speaks with Ally Vaughn about whether Miranda Priestly was simply cruel or whether the film unfairly framed a powerful woman who demanded excellence.

The conversation begins with the title of the film itself. Ally points out that by calling it The Devil Wears Prada, the audience is already encouraged to dislike Miranda before she even speaks. From there, the discussion explores the pressures facing women in positions of power — especially women who are ambitious, demanding, serious, and unwilling to soften themselves to make others comfortable.

Ally reflects on Miranda’s world: a high-stakes industry where decisions shaped culture, careers, and influence. In that environment, Miranda expected responsiveness, preparation, commitment, and high standards from the people around her. The conversation asks whether some of what we interpreted as harshness was actually clarity, discipline, and deep responsibility towards the mission.

At the same time, neither Julia nor Ally ignore the damage Miranda caused. The episode explores the toxic side of performance obsession — fear-driven environments, lack of clarity, public criticism, favouritism, and the unfair treatment of Emily. Together, they reflect on how quickly mission-focus can become mission-obsession, creating cultures where people stop making good decisions because they are operating from fear.

A central thread in the conversation is fairness. Through the contrasting experiences of Andy and Emily, Julia and Ally discuss what happens when talented, committed people feel overlooked or unfairly treated — and how favouritism can quietly erode trust in someone’s leadership.

The episode also explores the contradictions in Miranda herself. Despite her cruelty, she backed talented people deeply, protected her team from uncertainty, explained the bigger vision behind seemingly small decisions, and understood the weight of her role in shaping an industry.

Together, Julia and Ally reflect on a more uncomfortable truth: successful women are often judged differently. The same focus, determination, and decisiveness that might be admired in others can quickly become labelled as coldness, arrogance, or cruelty in women.

This episode is not a defence of Miranda Priestly. It is a more honest conversation about power, fairness, feedback, fear, ambition, and the complicated realities of leading under pressure.

About the Guest:

Ally Vaughn

Ally Vaughn is Head of Business Management for Fixed Income, Commodities, and Core Technology at Millennium Capital Management, a global multi-strategy investment firm. Based in London, she is responsible for the financial management and operational effectiveness of the technology organisation, delivering strategic initiatives and leading the expansion of global offices and centres of excellence to ensure the technology platform scales with the firm’s investment ambitions. Prior to joining Millennium, Ally was Head of Transformation at Polen Capital and spent 15 years at Goldman Sachs in a range of leadership roles.

About the Host

Julia Middleton

Julia Middleton is the host of the Women Emerging podcast and a best-selling author of “If that’s leading, I’m in” as well as two previous books: “Leading beyond Authority” and “Cultural Intelligence”. She is deeply committed to helping people from all backgrounds to find their own approach to leading. In 2020, Julia launched Women Emerging and in 2022 she lead an expedition of 24 women to find ‘an approach to leading that resonates with women’. She now leads expeditions with women all over the world based on 4Es methodology, discovered in the first expedition.

Prior to that, Julia was founder and, for over thirty years, Chief Executive of Common Purpose, which grew to become one of the biggest leadership development organisations in the world.
Julia is also an Ambassador for the Aurora Prize based in Armenia, on the boards of Alfanar Venture Philanthropy in the Arab World and Equality Now, which operates globally, and on the Advisory Councils of Fundacao Dom Cabral in Brazil and Synapse in Pakistan. Born in London and brought up in New York, Julia was educated at French Lycées and graduated from the London School of Economics. She is married, with five children and lots of grandchildren.