With the recent celebration of International Women’s Day, women’s empowerment is a topic on everyone’s mind. A mantra that has recently gained popularity in this realm is “women support women” which is the idea that women should uplift their fellow females in order for everyone to succeed.
Unfortunately, this idea seems to be fragile in practice because there is often competition between women. Society loves to tear down women’s interests and hobbies, and in turn, women are pitted against each other. They feel pressure to be different than every other girl. This leads to the constant cycle of putting others down to feel good about oneself.
While the negativity caused by this competition is problematic, there are even scarier consequences. According to Shelley Zalis’s Forbes article, “Power of the Pack: Women Who Support Women Are More Successful” women who are in constant opposition struggle more with overcoming workplace obstacles. If females are always struggling to one-up each other, how can they overcome gender barriers?
The only solution is collaboration. When women come together, they create their own success. Instead of feeling the need to have an advantage over others, they share ideas and produce magnificent results. As Zalis states in her article, women can learn from others’ experiences, and as a result, the whole group benefits. Especially in professional fields where men dominate, it is important for females to have their own support systems of other women who can relate to shared problems.
Far before women even reach the professional work world, they are subtly influenced to have an “it’s either me or them” mentality. For instance, it is stereotypical for high school girls to be deemed catty. People assume that large groups of girls cannot get along purely due to jealousy. This is not the case.
High school is very image-driven. One can easily become exiled for having interests that are seen as abnormal. Because of this, young people, especially females, can feel as though they are trapped. They must dress the right way, have the correct hobbies, etc. It is human nature to lash out when trapped, and it is easy in this situation to pin insecurities on others to save one’s own image. Girls do not inherently dislike other girls. They are taught to feel threatened by others’ success. If they were instead encouraged to realize success for the individual is also success for the group, a more positive environment would prevail.
Practicing and preaching a “women support women” mentality is the first step in empowering other females and creating equality among all. When women work together they can achieve more and therefore lift up females as a whole. This betters life for all women.
It can be easy to fall into woman-on-woman hate because this is what society encourages. There are constant barriers being set up that make the professional, and pre-professional, world feel like only a few women can succeed while everyone else fails. However, this belief is the exact reason the cycle of female competition continues. When women start working together, more can be achieved.
Encourage your friends, sisters, classmates and coworkers to be themselves and strive for success. Share your love for certain hobbies and work together to solve problems. Give helpful advice and celebrate each other’s good fortune. Because when women support women, we become unstoppable.