CLAUDIA SCHIFFER
Demoralized
Confession time. Have you ever looked around at
work exasperated and declared all women bitchy,
emotional, food–obsessed and prone to erratic
outbursts? Do you secretly (or openly) think men
are more level-headed, direct and decisive? If the
answer’s yes, you’re not alone. According to a
recent survey, two thirds of women would rather
work for a man. Add to that the female journalists
writing scathing remarks about women’s bodies
and that female, not male, friend who’s made a
makes the backhanded compliment about your
promotion (you know it’s happened) and it’s a
full-on woman versus woman war.
Reality show The Apprentice is the perfect case
in point. For the last four years, Alan Sugar’s who
has posed the ideal platform for ambitious female
entrepreneurs. In an industry that is still
dominated by men (men account for 73% of
business-owners in the UK) it’s put females on an
equal footing and given them a unique opportunity
to succeed in a male-dominate world. The female
contestants <should> have been supporting each
other. Instead they used it as an opportunity to stab
each other in the back, with 2009 finalist Kate
Walsh really twisting the knife in when she
confessed her biggest nightmare would be working
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concentrating on battering each other. One senior
executive at a successful advertising firm said she
had “finally broken the glass ceiling” only to have
another woman gun for her job by telling
management, “I can’t work for her, she’s passiveaggressive.”
The strategy worked: the executive
soon lost the job to her accuser.
This situation is far from a one-off. “Women are
much more likely to sabotage other women in the
workplace,” says psychotherapist Rosjke
Hasseldine and author of The Silent Female
(Women’s Bookshelf publishing, £8.99) “They don’t
feel the same threat from a man, regardless of his
professional status. It’s drummed into us that
there’s a finite window for successful women,
therefore we view all other women as our
competition.” In fact, a survey by the Workplace
Bullying Institute found that women choose other
women as targets more than 70 per cent of the time.
What’s more, fuelled by barbed comments about
high-profile women and celebrities in the media –
focusing on their outfits, their hair, their weight
- our appetite for bitchery is growing by the day.
“It’s schadenfreude,” says behavioural expert
Judi James, author of The Body Language Bibl. “We
like to think that, however rubbish our own lives
are, someone else is in a worse position. We don’t
with an all-female team. “Too much emotion, in my like the idea of another woman enjoying a perfect
experience,” she complained, generalising her life full of money, beauty, love and success,
whole sex with a sweep of the hand.
particularly if obtaining that life involves a lot of
Then there was the Harriet Harman backlash.
effort.” et’s be honest. Nothing puts you off your
When she recently covered Gordon Brown’s
holiday this summer, she faced a barrage of
female-centric abuse, with one newspaper L
pain Nor au do chocolat female like bosses the rarely thought get of a
good meeting rep. a Anyone supermodel. who’s Especially seen The one
September who, 21 years Issue since can she testify was discovered,
that Vogue
journalist writing: “When Harman implies that her
editor is still Karl Anna Lagerfeld’s Wintour would definitive be a muse
promotion is a victory for all women, rather than for challenge Chanel and to share is the a new boardroom face of both with. Alberta But perhaps
her alone, she sounds to me like an egomaniac.” Ferretti’s more telling and Dolce is that & women Gabbana’s often new aren’t fragrances. comfortable
Harsh words for a politician who sees her fellow with Along women with Cindy, who get Linda a kick and out Naomi, of pure Claudia naked is so
sex as a massive attribute to the economy and has ‘super’ power she - they doesn’t shock, even surprise need a and last disgust name to us. back “To
worked relentlessly for women’s rights to both up our her animal status. brains, And on the walking only dominant into Ms Schiffer’s female is the
work and have children.
Notting mother,’ Hill explains town house, James. Stylist ‘If she’s sincerely not nurturing wishes we’d we
The predominant reason women cited for put struggle that pastry with down. her authority Because and despite compete turning against 40
wanting a man in the top office was their superior next her. year, Yet most the German female bosses model makes have male us realise that
“decision-making abilities”. But forget management genetics characteristics are simply - the not business fair. world is a set of rules
style - the anti-sister stance goes far deeper; namely created Wearing by no men, make-up and if and you a want black higher jumper status and jeans,
that we’ve embraced the rewards of feminism but she’s you’ve utterly got to beautiful. behave like Dainty a man and - ballerina-lithe therefore they with are
instead of bonding us, it’s starting to divide us. baby-blonde not nurturing…” hair and feline eyes, Claudia is a 5’11”
And nowhere does this apply to more so than in Brigitte Take Bardot. Margaret And Thatcher. her home Being is as understated,
our first female
the workplace.
beautiful Prime Minister and tasteful should as she have is made – with her high a feminist ceilings,
Perhaps it’s a result of the increasingly
dark pin-up wood but and she Damien is often Hirst criticised on the for wall. pulling It’s enough the
competitive job market – the jobless total in the UK to ladder make a up girl behind feel a her little instead inferior. of supporting other
has risen to 2.38million, the highest level for 13 women. Not that “Nurturing” that’s her intenion. is not a word Schiffer, we who associate has two
years – but after years of collectively battering the children with the with Iron her Lady. husband, Thatcher film had producer what social
glass ceiling together, now it seems we’re
Matthew researchers Vaughn have – Caspar, since coined six, and Queen Clementine, Bee
Syndrome, where female bosses opt for preserving
their own personal power instead of showing some
sisterly support. “Why should a woman have to
represent her whole sex?” asks James.
“Disassociating yourself from other women can be
a way to prove your worth.”
Now Queen Bee Syndrome is exploding in the
UK workplace. One female partner in a prestigious
nationwide law firm admitted she wouldn’t employ
a woman more attractive than herself. “One
problem of high-ranking females is that they
behave so much like alpha males to get where they
are, they believe a perk of their job is to get your
pick of the opposite sex,” explains James. “Part of
her status is being the biggest “prize” in the office.”
Even when women <don’t> behave like alpha
males in the workplace, they face a different kind
of criticism – for being too female. When Walsh
confessed she hated working with women in the
Apprentice she got vilified. But according to
Samantha Brick, a producer who launched a
DEFINING
BEAUTY
women-only TV company, she had a point,
“Constant bitchiness, unchecked emotion,
attention-seeking and fashion rivalry so fierce it
tore my staff apart. There was a time I believed in
the Sisterhood, but that was before women at war
led to my emotional and financial ruin.”
For more than 20 years Claudia Schiffer
has been at the top of her game,
but she admits that being centre of
attention hasn’t come easily
WORDS: ALIX WALKER
PHOTOGRAPHY: DAVID SLIJPER
Just what is it about women that make us fight
against each other? “Women’s misogynist
behaviour towards each other exposes something
deep and dark within women’s relationships.
Underneath the popular image of women being
good at relationships lies a reality that blocks our
ability to support, protect and fight for each other,”
believes psychotherapist Rosjke Hasseldine.
She goes on to add: “Without understanding
how patriarchy has got under our skin, women are
in danger of being like crabs in a bucket… As soon
as one tries to escape, the others pull the escapee
back down. Fear of not being liked, of being alone,
of the consequences of escaping and standing up
for your rights and life, are strong motivators that
make women pull each other back down to where it
is sad but safe and familiar.”
The reasons we have it in for other women so
much run deep. One thing is clear: we put a lot of
energy into it. We have high expectations of other
women. We buy magazines with women on the
cover and leave ones with men on the shelf. Other
women are compelling and engaging. They matter a
lot. The only problem is, we set such impossible
standards for other women – and for ourselves –
that no mere mortal could ever live up to that ideal.
We want her to be talented but not full of herself,
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