When women but not men are required to fit into tightly cabined roles in order to be accepted, women who play either traditionally feminine or traditionally masculine roles may end up pitted against one another. In this way, gender bias can create conflict among women.[1] These so-called “gender wars” are described below.

Glass Ceiling Gender Wars

Conflicts arise among women because of the difficult path professional women have to chart between masculinity and femininity. Women who behave in traditionally feminine roles may find women who behave in traditionally masculine ways off-putting, and vice-versa.

I’ve seen lots of women, senior women, behave that way. And even not just as far as the working long hours, but even adopting male mannerisms. I don’t know how to describe it, but sort of really aggressive and not putting up with any crap and almost having a chip on their shoulder and also going out of their way to not mentor young women. You would think that women above you would be the ones that would be the obvious people to really help the next generation of women and it usually turns out that they’re the worst.[2]

...I think I’m on kind of a backlash mission almost. I purposely don’t [behave as a man]. I wear dresses, I bake cookies for my group meetings, I bring my child to class with me... I guess I’ve just kind of really stuck it out there and said look, this is you know, this is me, I’m a woman, I’m someone’s mother. And you get the whole package. Nobody’s really commented on it in particular....But it is kind of a conscious choice on my part that I’m not going to compete as a boy because I’m not a boy.

Maternal Wall Gender Wars

Women in academia become mothers at sharply lower rates than women in the general population.[3] Some are regretful; others are “childfree.” Gender wars can arise between mothers and each group. Regretful, “childless” women sometimes feel: “Mothers can’t expect to have it all. Look what I had to give up to succeed.” Happily “childfree” women may feel that mothers are reinforcing stereotypes that women need “special treatment.” Mothers may feel that “women are less supportive than the men.” These dynamics are not just “catfights": they stem from a particular pattern of gender bias.[4]

When a female faculty member on leave from a large research university became pregnant and asked for a second year of leave, the university said she either had to return in January or resign. When she resigned, an older female professor said: “I’ve fought on the front lines so you wouldn’t have to do this. You’re screwing your career over.”[5]

I...am tired of children and breeders getting all the consideration all the time.[6]

We have a case in our college where one of the faculty women had four children, and she has a lot of service responsibility. Every time she was out on maternity leave, someone had to pick up her service. Well, the first time you do it, everybody pitches in and they’re happy. The second time it’s okay, but the third and the fourth time...she started to engender some resentment. Not so much from the guys, but the women who don’t have children in the department would say, how many times do we have to pick...up [the slack]?