Women’s Hostility to Women at Work: Myth or Reality

Are women really each other’s worse enemy or is it just a myth and a stereotype?  What does the research show about women’s hostility to other women, sometimes called bullying, in the workplace?  Bullying is a learned behavior that gets fine-tuned during our school years.  Girls and women tend to bully using more subtle nuanced types of tactics that are relationship-based.  Men’s ways of bullying tend to be more aggressive. Is female to female bullying an issue that deserves attention apart from general workplace bullying? Is discussing women’s hostility to women feeding into the stereotype of women’s “nasty” behavior at work?  Perhaps if women are bullying other women they need to be told to “put on your big girl panties” and deal with it, as the saying goes. Do we have different expectations of women’s behavior at work than we do of men’s behavior? If so, could that be playing a role in the perception that women bully women? Do we have a responsibility, as women, to support our “sisters” at work?

• To describe women’s ways of bullying
• To discuss the theoretical causes and contributing factors of women’s bulling
• To determine if bullying could be illegal harassment
• To explore the impact of women bullying their colleagues
• To identify management’s role in the prevention and intervention of women’s bullying
• To list the steps to take if targeted by a bully

• Theories as to whether women are more hostile to each other than to men
• Sexism and stereotypes in our perceptions of women and men’s bullying
• The nexus of bullying and harassment
• Impact of bullying on witnesses
• Tort Laws
• Tokenism

• Anyone in management at all levels
• Human Resources generalists, managers, directors
• Women and men

Dr. Susan Strauss is a national and international speaker, trainer and consultant. Her specialty areas include management/leadership development, organization development, communication, and harassment and bullying. She is an expert witness for discrimination and harassment lawsuits. She trains and consults with business, education, healthcare, law, and government organizations from both the public and private sector. Dr. Strauss has authored over 30 book chapters, books, and articles in professional journals. She has been featured on 20/20, CBS Evening News, and other television and radio programs as well as interviewed for newspaper and journal articles. She has her doctorate in organizational leadership, is a registered nurse with a bachelor’s degree in psychology and human services, a master’s degree in community health, and professional certificate in training and development.