Women are mothers, sisters, daughters, and wives. We have many other women we love in our lives, so why does it seem that going to work is a battle zone? Some women are notorious back stabbers, manipulators, frenemies, and gossipers. These women are giving all other women a bad name. Women have to be careful who they confide in because the wrong person could use that information as ammunition later when it suits her. Women have it hard enough already to try to get promoted, paid as much or more than a man, and to be seen as a hard-nosed businesswoman without coming off as a b*tch.
We have so much more on our plate especially if you are married with children and pets, so why aren't other women the understanding and caring individuals as seen by society or around the neighborhood? Men definitely don't understand what really goes on, the cattiness and bullying behind the scenes. Women can truly hurt each other's careers just out of spite or anger, jealousy or amusement. Women find it hard how to address uncomfortable situations. While you don't want to make waves in the workplace, you just want to go to the job you love and be treated well while you're there. It is a tough decision on whether to go to supervisors, HR or handle it in an adult manner privately and directly with the person or persons the woman is having issues with.
So why does this happen? Why do women do this to each other? Why can't we just help each other out? This is not just a high school issue as most people have always thought, unfortunately, adults are very capable and much better at making it a subtle thing so no red flags are raised. Women, in their late twenties to late fifties, are in cliques freezing out other women and acting passive/aggressively. Work is our other home, it is supposed to be something you enjoy if you are as lucky as I am. Women are sabotaging other women's careers for various reasons unknown. Maybe they are unhappy with their lives/work, maybe they just find it amusing, or possibly they have some private issues that are not known to the outside world, but makes them act in certain ways if they are undiagnosed or not receiving help for their issue.
After five decades of striving for equality, I find it hard to believe that this is the legacy we want to leave in the work environment. This only pushes back the issues we have been striving for; equal pay, proving we are capable of being mature and exemplary leaders of corporations, and the stigma that woman are emotional in the workplace. Hostile behavior comes from women of all titles; it does not matter if you are at the top of the ladder or the bottom. Some harassing behaviors are described as: being given the silent treatment (or acting as if that person doesn't exist at all), being glared at in a hostile manner or given nasty "looks", having been treated disrespectfully or rudely with belittling comments, not being "in the loop" about meetings, etc. so that the co-worker is absent and looks bad to the boss, and gossiping with other co-workers behind the person's back. These are things that happen daily to women all across the U.S.
Women should encourage each other and give actual advice that would help one another succeed. Women need to stop viewing other women as competition. If one woman is seen as harassing, bullying, or doing any other activities that are frowned upon, it gives all women in the workplace a bad name. We are bunched together as one, looked at as a blanket statement that if one is this way, all are. Acting like a professional woman in the workplace is vital to all women's success and breaking the glass ceiling in other areas we are being held back in.
Education is incredibly important in corporations. Companies should educate their workers with classes and role-playing, not just make it a paragraph in the employee handbook no one ever reads unless they have an issue. If companies provide sexual harassment training and seminars, then why can't there be classes taught by experts that are for women only? Being informed is a very good way to help end this behavior. I think it's time for us to deal with this destructive behavior because all it is doing is preventing us from rising to the top and being successful, as a gender, in the workplace.