Have you ever felt threatened by another woman?
Has another woman ever found you threatening?
Perhaps you’ve been on both sides of that coin?
Why do women fear other women?
And why do we try to pretend this isn’t even a “thing”?
It’s more than a thing. It’s a problem.
Women have been heard to say things like, “I’m not like other women. I’ve always prioritized my career”
Yikes! Sometimes I wonder if there really is such a thing as women misogynists.
“There’s a special place in hell for women who don’t help other women.”
That quote is from Madeleine Albright, former US Secretary of State.
I don’t believe in hell, but I believe karma takes care of things.
Still, the mean girls are still out there.
We don’t want to admit it. We don’t want to feel it. We don’t want to be part of it.
And yet there it is: The elephant in the room.
Why? Where does this come from?
At the heart of it is this: We’ve been taught to feel threatened by other women.
She’ll steal your man.
She’ll steal your best friend.
She’ll steal your ideas.
She’ll steal your life!
There’s actually a psychological root cause for this if you’re looking for the historical explanation. Here’s a scientific explanation.
Look, this is not meant to be a criticism of women. This is what becoming socially conscious looks like.
First we open our eyes to see the problem, then we seek to understand it, then we fix it.
There’s no room for snark when our intentions are to protect the sisterhood.
There’s also no room for fear. We’re gutsyass adult women for heaven’s sake.
Women in the Obama administration came up with a genius way to “fix it.” It became known as the “amplification strategy.” It went something like this:
The Amplification Strategy
Whenever a woman made a key point in a meeting, other women in the room would repeat it and give credit to the woman who came up with the idea, right there in the room, in front of everyone. The men in the room were forced to recognize women’s contributions to the meetings and thwarted any efforts to claim the idea as their own.
Is it any wonder half of all department heads in the Obama administration were women? It’s because some smart (and emotionally intelligent) women got together and created the amplification strategy.
Are you ready to amplify? Are you willing to make a deliberate effort to lift another woman UP today?
Can you call attention to the brilliance of another woman?
A rising tide.
That’s what we are.
This is how we Woman UP.
