Further Reflections on "Sisterhood"

In response to the article "The End of Sisterhood," featured in last Wednesday's and yesterday's posts, Kelly Francis thoughtfully explores other sources of pressure and solutions connected to women working together.

While I definitely agree that there is still some acrimony among female professionals, and additionally agree with the article's suggestions as to why this continues to happen, (i.e. expectations that women will be more empathetic, generational differences and basic competition) I think the analysis comes close, but stops short of stating the overarching source of the problem.

Even professional, well accomplished women, are likely to suffer from bouts of low self-esteem and harbor sexist notions against other women. We all live in the same culture. We are assaulted by the same images and stereotypes. We internalize them the same as everyone else and I don't believe we will ever be able to de-program ourselves completely. We sometimes devalue ourselves and we sometimes devalue other women in order to lift ourselves up in our own eyes.

This post actually calls to mind a quote from Letty Cottin Pogrebin, editor of Ms. magazine back in 1972, in her article "Competing with Women."

"Our competitiveness is not a dirty act of treachery but a survival tactic of a second class human being. Lacking confidence, bereft of self-esteem we play the only game in town that seems to offer a payoff."

And though these lines are over 30 years old, and perhaps more intense than called for in reference to today's legal professionals, they maintain a certain relevance. As women who have accomplished a great deal, and still fear being perceived as anything less than confident and self-assured, admitting to occasional battles with self-doubt and self-criticism is far from easy. Perhaps one way that women can offer support to one another is in opening up a dialogue about our own susceptibility to social devaluation, rather than trying to brush off the slights as if they don't affect us and attempting to face these pressures alone.