When Women Work Together: Using Our Strengths to Overcome Our Challenges

While there is much women enjoy about working with one another, problems such as jealousy, destructive gossip, back-biting, and sabotage can do arise. After surveying over 500 women, Carolyn Duff and Barbara Cohen found that the very attributes that give us advantages at work--caring, compassion, and cooperation--can cause these difficulties. The virtue of caring, for example, may set us up for problems evaluating coworkers, and inhibit us from seeking advancement for fear of alienating work friends. And our desire to cooperate may make it difficult to take charge and make decisions. When Women Work Together identifies the factors that both enhance and threaten good workplace relations between women. In a supportive and helpful manner, it demonstrates step-by-step, through stories, exercises, and practical suggestions, exactly how to make work not only productive, but personally satisfying.