Backlash: Women Bullying Women at Work

YELLING, scheming and sabotaging: all are tell-tale signs that a bully is at work, laying traps for employees at every pass.

During this downturn, as stress levels rise, workplace researchers say, bullies are likely to sharpen their elbows and ratchet up their attacks.

It’s probably no surprise that most of these bullies are men, as a survey by the Workplace Bullying Institute, an advocacy group, makes clear. But a good 40 percent of bullies are women. And at least the male bullies take an egalitarian approach, mowing down men and women pretty much in equal measure. The women appear to prefer their own kind, choosing other women as targets more than 70 percent of the time.

In the name of Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem, what is going on here?

Just the mention of women treating other women badly on the job seemingly shakes the women’s movement to its core. It is what Peggy Klaus, an executive coach in Berkeley, Calif., has called “the pink elephant” in the room. How can women break through the glass ceiling if they are ducking verbal blows from other women in cubicles, hallways and conference rooms?

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/10/business/10women.html?th&emc=th

That's something you don't see every day.

Just as they aren't anywhere else.

Women are too diverse a group to be a bloc. Electorally, or in the workplace.

women mistreating other women - and I'm not always the most observant of people. I've been in the corporate world for 20 years now. I would even say that 20 years ago, it was probably worse because there were fewer women in middle to senior management. I think. Of course, my evidence is anecdotal.

The older women in the workforce and the younger generation seem to be at serious odds.