Rivalry between Women in the Workplace
Sisters or Sinners in the workplace?
Being a woman and working in a corporate world has its challenges but is one of them the other woman in your office? We like to think that us “sisters” stick together in the still largely male dominated corporate world but is that true?
I read an article in an Australian newspaper awhile ago that wrote about bullying among women. The article suggested that it was alive and well in the female corporate world and it was often subtle and manipulative: ostracism, exclusion, spreading rumours and playing favourites. It is so subtle and so devastating in its consequences that the women bullied can end up thinking that something is wrong with them and not the person who is bullying them.
But where did it start? Is it an adult phenomenon that occurs once we enter the corporate world? Is it simply survival of the fittest in the work place?
A few years ago I had an early mid life crisis and left law to become a kindy teacher…yes I know! I lasted as a kindy teacher for only 2 years, deciding that in fact law was easier! But in those 2 years I witnessed disturbing behaviour amongst a group of middle class 4 year old girls. It was clear that one of the girls in my class, who I will call Jo, wanted to be a part of a group of 3 girls. Jo was sweet, quiet and shy …a bit of a dreamer. The other girls didn’t want Jo to be a part of their group and so they would ignore her, walk away from her, sometimes play with her and then later say, “you’re not our friend anymore”. They teased her for being a dreamer and flaunted their friendships with each other, in front of her.
Sounds like bullying to me. I can imagine this behaviour repeating itself in these women’s lives in 20 years time, perhaps in a corporate setting when the stakes are higher than just friendship. What will encourage them to be sisters instead of ‘sinners’? Can a work place create a culture of team and equality or is it something that some people just can’t be taught? Is the best that an employer can hope for is to choose wisely and weed out the ones who are not behaving or can an employer change the behaviours of his employees?
