Why Are Women Catty?

[CourtneyBanks]

I work in a Co-working space in Columbus, OH and it is a very male dominated space. Our office is made up of several small businesses with mainly owners working in the office. One thing that I've noticed from working in this office is how much the males help out one another. They go to lunch, salsa dancing, and dinners together when they're schedules allow which is pretty standard in terms of interoffice interactions but the thing that is different is how they connect one another with new business ventures. They keep each others' businesses in mind and are always trying to advance their friends.

I've been involved in organizations and internships since the 3rd grade and I've always found that women don't act in the same way. We don't help each other get ahead and I think until we change that aspect of how we do business we'll never get a good footing in the business world.

Have any of you found this trend of catty behavior or seen some great women helping out women in business?

[tenuk]

I myself am a male, and many of my female friends and relatives have spoken of this too as you've described it and I've noticed this type of behavior between women as well. Perhaps due to workplace inequality, favoritism, or some other unfair reason women have subconsciously or consciously developed an "every woman for herself" type of mentality. This is the case in the dating scene as well I would say. I can only speculate but it is an interesting (and important) issue to think about and address for women

[ElijahRYoung]

I've seen the same behavior.

I think the aggressive mentality that soem women believe they need to succees, tends to naturally alienate them from others, including women in the office. It almost seems as if they view their target as having "one seat left" and that drives them to favor competition over collaboration.

[Diko17]

My sister works in a very competitive lab and her boss (a woman) was always extremely nice to all the men but seemed to hate all the other women. I think it can be really hard for some women to come up and become recognized in such male-dominated fields and so maybe some of them don't want to make anything easier for other woman that are also trying to gain prominence in that field.