Competitive Combat: Fair sex Vs Fair(ER) Sex!

Samandie Wijegunawardena

What right did Conrad have to belittle his own sex when he wrote "Being a woman is a terribly difficult task, since it consists principally in dealing with men"? Had Conrad lived today he would probably make no objections if his famous quote was rewritten as "Being a woman is an unimaginably difficult task, since it consists in dealing with difficult characters of her own sex!"

There have been several women's organizations, feminist movements and protest campaigns to ensure the rights of women and to secure them their due place in the so called male dominated society, but hardly had there been any movement to raise a voice when the fair sex turns against or express subtle jealousies towards those who belong to their own sex. After all who will be there to launch the campaign? In the end the campaigners themselves will end up quarrelling among themselves when one tries to out smart the other. Fair wars..it can be aptly called..

Though it had not gone to the extent of establishing "Fair(er) sex's rights movements, there are enough incidents which superbly display female aggression towards those of their own sex. In offices it is largely female officers holding higher ranks who block the promotions of junior female officers, at homes disputes are common between mother-in-law and daughter-in- law or sisters-in-law, but not so much among brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law or father-in-law and daughter in- law and mostly it is women who uphold certain views that are unfavourable to their own sex such as certain religious rituals and practices etc.

Evidence

Research and studies have been done in foreign countries on the impact of female aggression towards their own "better" sex. However as the writer understands our own 'local' experiences too provide enough evidence to prove the point! As revealed by many undergraduates on different occasions on the subject, most of the time it was their male colleagues/batch mates who had offered them a helping hand whenever they faced any difficulty. "Girls are in the habit of never returning a book once it is borrowed from the library. They will keep the book with them for months, without mentioning about it even to their 'best' friends specially if they are better looking and intelligent than them!"

"It is the same when it comes to sharing study notes or exam papers." Though this is just one instance of hundreds of such similar stories, the significant finding here is that females may become jealous of those of the same sex if they are prettier or smarter than them . " More than their skills what matters for women is how the other women look. They are not comfortable with the sheer idea that another girl may appear better or prettier than them to the opposite sex! "said one of the undergraduates.

Work Place

Things are no better even at the work place. A female employee working at a reputed state bank said that she had to face inconveniences as a result of her immediate superior who is a female, "but not that good looking." As she says even though what her superior could do was 'little' regarding her promotion since she had all necessary qualifications, the work place had become unpleasant to her as a result of unnecessary "bullying."

"As I have heard the situation is even worse in private banks. It is in those places that you mostly get "English speaking" and "posh" working women who are highly concerned about their outward appearance. When it comes to promotions if you are prettier than your superior female officer you will face problems. But you will hardly face any issue if you are " an ugly duckling!"

Global research

One of the studies conducted in the US last year, a psychology experiment published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows that "women are quite similar in their behaviour to men in sexism towards women when it comes to job recruitments , salaries and professional mentorship. It has been found that both men and women" prefer to work under a male boss.

During this study senior science faculty across the U.S. were presented with identical résumés for a lab-manager job (a position that can often lead to graduate study) that differed only in the gender of the hypothetical applicant. As the study revealed the résumé raters were statistically more likely to rate the male candidate higher on competence and hirability and were also more likely to offer the male candidate a bigger salary and greater professional mentorship. "By contrast, the hypothetical female applicants were rated more likable but less hirable. Female scientists were just as likely to favour male candidates as potential hires as male scientists were."

This shows that even in the 21st Century, at a time when gender gaps are said to be closing, subtle discrimination and jealousies exist even among higher academic levels. According to another study that was done in last May in Spain, Netherlands and Argentina where the findings were recorded in journal Revista de Psicología Social , men and women deal with jealousy very differently in the workplace. "Women with a high level of intrasexual competition are more jealous if the rival is more attractive and more envious if the rival is more powerful and dominating. As for men being jealous of men, didn't really happen. No rival characteristics that provoke jealousy or envy predicted intrasexual competition among men," reveals the study.

Using questionnaires given to 200 workers, scientists analysed intrasexual rivalry, choosing 114 people to further complete the study. Results showed sexual competition generally causes more jealousy and envy in women, but rivals' social skills provoke both emotions in both men and women.

Social skills

Reviewing the study results Professor Rosario Zurriaga, of the University of Valencia had stated that the result shows the importance of social skills in work environments. As Prof. Zurriaga later revealed their research intended to clarify the role of emotions like envy and jealousy at work. These feelings have not been studied in working contexts and can cause stress in workers and negatively affect the quality of working life.

What had been looked at during the research were intrasexual rivalry - competition with other people of the same sex caused by a desire to keep access to the opposite sex.They distinguished between two emotions, envy and jealousy. Jealousy was defined as a threat or loss of success because of interference from a rival. Envy, according to the researchers is a response to another person who has skills or qualities they desire.

Prof Zurriaga holds the view that in order to prevent the negative effects of these feelings people should modify aspects like the perception of threat, loss or comparison with others at work.

Local scene

Getting back to the local arena there are instances where even superior female officers face harassment at office as a result of the subtle jealousies of elderly females who hold subordinate positions.

Even though men are blamed for causing difficulties and inconveniences to women, in many instances they come to the rescue of the fair sex when their own 'species' turn a blind eye.

As opined by an Assistant Director in a leading State Ministry all her suboidinate female staff seems to dislike her because she is younger than them , but hold a higher designation."When I was new even though I was an AD, they tried to ignore my commands, and did not help me at all to get used to the new working environment. There were certain female officers- even clerks- who addressed me with no respect."

She added that when something went wrong who came to her rescue were senior or elderly male officers.

Based on research findings it is evident that it is women who are bringing down their female coworkers and are hostile towards them most of the time. According to Assistant professor of Organizational Behaviour at Olin Business School and author of Female Tokens in High-prestige Work Groups: Catalysts or Inhibitors of Group Diversification?, Michelle Duguid, two forms of value threat that affect the behaviour of female tokens in high-status work groups in the context of promotion and selection can be identified based on another major recent research that was conducted.

She has named them as competitive threat and collective threat. As Duguid sees competitive threat is the fear that a highly qualified female candidate might be more qualified, competent or accepted than you are,The collective threat is that women also might be concerned about bringing in another woman with lower qualifications, who could reinforce negative stereotypes about women and impact others' impressions of them.

Female Bishops

The Guardian,UK in an article last November revealed that evidence released from Church House show that "women made up almost half of the lay people who voted against legislation to allow female bishops in the Church of England.

The Guardian further reported that voting figures show that 33 of the 74 General Synod lay members who voted against the measure were women, most of them conservative evangelicals or members of the church's Anglo-Catholic wing. They had the support of another 2,200 women who signed a petition opposing reform. In the Guardian article it is further mentioned that "in many ways, women voting against women is hardly a new phenomenon. Before the first world war, the threat of becoming "unsexed" was used against the suffragettes, scaring some women into joining the Anti-Suffrage League founded in 1908 by the novelist Humphry Ward."(Ward is a cautionary figure in the history of female emancipation, a bestselling novelist who took her campaign to extremes, getting her son Arnold elected as a Conservative MP so that he could campaign against votes for women.)

Own protection

As author Andrea Dworkin has written in her Right-Wing Women in 1983, some women "acquiesce to male authority in order to gain protection from male violence."

However while agreeing with her view, researchers and other modern writers further add to it that it is not purely the fear of violence that makes women go against their own sex.

Another interesting journal Women against women: On the troubled sisterhood which denies the view that women constitute a coherent group intends to show that conflict among women derives from their different class, ethnic, occupational, educational, and generational backgrounds as well as diverse individual values. Reviewing the journal published in 1999 Drude Dahlerup says that this perspective goes against conventional wisdom, which treats women as one category and assumes that women ought to be able to work together.

"Conflict among women is seen as a result of women's petty, narrow-minded, and gossipy nature."

"What we should study is how, when, and on what issues women, in fact, have been able to work together. In the introduction, the editors stress that cooperation and conflict among groups of women always takes place within and is shaped by male dominated institutions and structures. They argue that historically it has been more difficult for women to work together as a group because of women's many different ways of providing for themselves or being provided for." Her review further mentions.

As George Bernard Shaw has once stated "Clever and attractive women do not want to vote; they are willing to let men govern as long as they govern men." However it is evident that even if they vote they will always vote for men as they do not want a woman to govern them since they have no control over those of their own sex!"