I always thought that holding people accountable for their mistakes (including myself!) was necessary for professional growth (I work in IT). I'm currently managing a team of people, and one woman is causing trouble.

This woman, somehow, was never held to such standards (responsibility, effort, etc), and thinks she's entitled to have others protecting her incompetence. She's doing a mess of things (professionally), refuses to change or accept any kind of responsibility, and then we have to cover her ass because our own work gets compromised.

We are small company and cannot afford to screw things up. My own superiors side with me and let me do my thing with her, but she just doesn't stop and tries hard to make sure my coworkers despise me for going against her.

She fucking screws things up because she thinks she has the right to waste time at work instead of working and then DEMANDS that we cover her ass. Because she's under me, I put her ass on the right track, demanding things that are totally expected from everyone else. And yet she vents, because her own incompetence and lack of effort, somehow, is not her fault, but the fact that she's different and I'm a robot who knows no limits...

Because my boss is not being hard on her (but approves of me doing so), she only vents against me and I'm slowly seeing my reputation being ruined. I know this is work, but still, I have a good relationship with my other coworkers, I don't want that to stop...

What can I do to fix this? How can I make someone like this stop if she won't get fired? Should I just accept that those who "hate" you will, eventually, try to fuck you up, especially if they are women under you?