No contest

Women are often each other’s biggest fans. According to one study, women are five times more likely to have an automatic preference for their own gender than men are. Female friendships are considered nurturing and supportive. Women are thought of as the friendlier, more caring, kinder, and less aggressive gender – even by men.

Here’s the conundrum. What happens when women cross the threshold of the workplace? What causes these positive perceptions to fall away and relationships between women to sour? Why are women in business regularly thought of as cut-throat or just plain mean to each other? When does compassion turn into catfight?

Sun Young Lee of University College London’s School of Management, and Selin Kesebir and Madan Pillutla from London Business School’s Organisational Behaviour group, investigated why women’s work relationships with each other don’t always fit their image as the “nicer” gender. Could it be that the competitive structure of the workplace harms relationships between female employees?