I don't know if there's many other comparison points in terms of women managing large teams consisting solely of men. I can only think of Jadine (who had a solid plan and won but who was chaotic and allowed herself to be distracted by minutiae to the point of ridiculousness) and Alexa (LOLOLOL). I guess you could count Miriam in Series 1 who managed a team of four guys (I thought she was definitely better in the role than Katie was as well, and I generally think Miriam's very overrated).

Definitely Katie deserved to stay over either of the guys in the boardroom - Michael was the weakest overall, and Ricky was responsible (as sub-team manager) for the loss of the task, but I don't think we've seen enough after three episodes (in one of which she was invisible) yet to say she's definitely a better candidate oveall than Ricky, although if I were a betting man I'd say she almost certainly is.

Every year, there's always a female candidate who's being given a hard time. Some that I remember: Lorraine, Lucinda, Stella, Susan Ma and this year Katie. These women are quite capable, yet some can find them annoying (i.e Lorraine & Susan Ma), quirky (i.e. Lucinda & Zoe Junior Apprentice) or even intimidating (i.e. Stella). I think Katie is quite "intimidating" for some of the women in there. The reason is obvious. Katie is the prettiest, the most professional looking & astute.

Why do people think girls are intimidated by other pretty girls?! I don't think that is the reason, its more that she was staying quiet the first week and nearly got fired, then last week Jane did say she was thinking about bringing Katie back into the board room.

Anyway, I think Laura is more attractive and people don't seem to be intimidated by her, but that is just my opinion

Don't get the Duane fan club at all

Since Katie only had half the number of units to sell compared to Sterling, it wasn't enough for her just to match Sterling's unit prices, she needed to more than double theirs. However, her average unit sale price was only £1.91 compared to Sterling's £1.69. So even in sales, she failed. (Moreover, she dumped her remaining stock at 83p per unit when she'd instructed Michael not to go below £1.99).

Current betting odds show that most punters think that Katie is the worst candidate (other than Gabrielle) and she is the bookies' favourite to be fired next.

Well, Jane has a personal grudge against Katie (even saying into the camera that she needed to be fired, though based on the episode she was one of the better girls last week).

Besides, Jade was already talking (in the ´back at the house´ segment) about how everybody thought that Katie probably wouldn´t come back from the boardroom (planting the seeds for the likes of Adam, Ricky and Nick).

If something had happened, then it must have been before the first task started (perhaps she stole a tampon from one of the girls ).

You can't just put it all down to her though. This week, while I accept she wasn't guiltless, there's little doubt that she was let down by some of her team.

I think, compared to the other wide boys, Duane comes across as a genuinely nice man, well mannered with a creative spark and a winning smile. He doesn't have that unattractive, aggressive rudeness that some candidates seem to think is business skill.

I'm afraid Jane is one of those women who see women as competition. You are either in her team (and agreeing with everything she says) or you are in opposition to her and therefore an enemy.
Katie clearly has strong views and is not prepared to be manipulated by Jane. I suspect that the moment she stood up to her, Jane marked her card (so to speak). So instead of seeing Katie's strengths and using them, Jane decided that Katie had to go.
Some women are very black and white about other women. You are either completely supportive or you are against them.
Jane is a very Alfa female and won't like other Alfa females around her. She won't shared the glory with anyone

I'm not seeing it. I like her, but she was mediocre at best. She didn't oversee production personally, instead choosing to do the branding. I was surprised she wasn't called on this in the boardroom, given that Lord Sugar's briefing had stated that production was the crucial element. She took her eye off the ball there. And it turns out her branding was weak too, using a sweet pepper to illustrate a hot chili sauce.

If she wasn't going to oversee production personally, she could at least have set them clear targets. In order to sell to trade they needed a maximum price per unit, which meant a minimum number of units, which the production team should have been told so they knew what to aim for. It's not enough to say, "make as many as you can".

We've certainly had worse PMs. She did organise them, get things done, and made the right call after the production disaster. That showed a basic level of competence in my book; a winner needs more.

After being quited frustrated that she stayed the first two weeks, I was actually impressed with Katie this week and thought she did a good job as PM - I personally thought she 'PMed' better than Duane did.