

Part 3



New evidence suggests that women pack up their social baggage from childhood and tote it to the office with their briefcases. Professional relationships among women at work are mired in the same dynamics that propelled them into hurtful behaviours in their younger years. Now the stakes are higher - their career is on the line. More than that, the male-dominated organizational structures of the workplace may actually foster resentment, cut-throat competition and power struggles among female bosses and their employees. After four decades of feminist efforts and hard won parity with men, a woman's success may well come at the expense of her own sex.





Resources



New evidence suggests that women pack up their social baggage from childhood and tote it to the office with their briefcases. Professional relationships among women at work are mired in the same dynamics that propelled them into hurtful behaviours in their younger years. Now the stakes are higher - their career is on the line. More than that, the male-dominated organizational structures of the workplace may actually foster resentment, cut-throat competition and power struggles among female bosses and their employees. After four decades of feminist efforts and hard won parity with men, a woman's success may well come at the expense of her own sex.

What are the costs when society insists that "catty" behaviour is normal, natural and expected from girls? Fourteen-year-old Dawn-Marie Wesley paid the ultimate price when she killed herself to escape the persistent social torment of her friends. She named three girls in her suicide note resulting in criminal charges and a precedent setting court case. This is a cautionary tale for every player in a social dynamic that can easily spiral out of control. Through exclusive interviews with Dawn-Marie's family, closest friends and one girl convicted of criminally harassing her, a startlingly complex picture of denial, blame, guilt and a continuing struggle to heal emerges.Girls Will be Girls: Raising Confident and Courageous Daughters by, (Hyperion, 2002).Schoolgirls: Young Women, Self-esteem and the Confidence Gap by, (Anchor Books, 1994).

Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls by Mary Pipher, (Ballantine, 1994).

Fast Girls: Teenage Tribes and the Myth of the Slut by Emily White, (Scribner 2002).

Sex, Power and the Violent School Girl, by Sibylle Artz, (Teachers College, 1999).

The Bully, the Bullied and the Bystander: From Pre-school to High School: How Parents and Teachers Can Help Break the Cycle of Violence by Barbara Coloroso, (Harper, 2003).



Girl Wars: 12 Strategies That Will End Female Bullying by Cheryl Dellasega and Charisse Nixon, (Fireside, 2003).

When Girls Feel Fat: Helping Girls Through Adolescence, by Sandra Susan Friedman, (Firefly, 2000). Read an excerpt on the Firefly Books website.

Re-writing Reality: Young Women on Their Search for Self. ed. by Azmina N. Ladha, (The Freda Centre, 2003). For more info visit the website .

Raising Their Voices: The Politics of Girls' Anger by Lyn Mikel Brown, (Harvard, 1998).

Odd Girl Out: The Hidden Culture of Aggression in Girls by Rachel Simmons, (1st edition, Harcourt, 2002).



Odd Girl Speaks Out: Girls Write about Bullies, Cliques, Popularity, and Jealousy by Rachel Simmons, (Harvest, 2004).

Social Aggression Among Girls by Marian K. Underwood, (Guilford, 2003).

Queen Bees and Wannabes: Helping Your Daughter Survive Cliques, Gossip, Boyfriends, and Other Realities of Adolescence by Rosalind Wiseman, (Crown, 2002).

Facing the Schoolyard Bully: How to raise an Assertive Child in an Aggressive World by Kim Zarzour, (Firefly, 2003). Read an excerpt on the Firefly Books website.

Children Who Bully: Will They Just Grow Out of It?, by Wendy M. Craig and Debra Pepler. Orbit.(1999): Vol. 29, No. 4. 16-19. OISE.

Getting to the Roots of Bullying: Investing in Children. Read the article on the Investing in Kids website.

Making a Difference in Bullying, by Debra Pepler and Wendy Craig. LaMarsh Centre for Research on Violence and Conflict Resolution, 2000. Read the article

on the LaMarsh website.

Reena Virk: The Erasure of Race, by Yasmin Jiwani, Ph.D. December 1997,

The FREDA Centre for Research on Violence against Women and Children. Read the article on the FREDA Centre website







Recommended Fiction for Girls





Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood, (1988).



Blubber by Judy Blume, (1974).



Tulip Touch by Anne Fine, (1997).



The Girls by Amy Koss, (2000).



Secret Friends by Elizabeth Laird, (1996).



My Secret Bully by Trudy Ludwig & Abigail Marble; Illustrated by Susan Wellman, (2004).

Woman's Inhumanity to Woman, by, (Nation Books, 2002).



She Wins, You Win, by Gail Evans, (Gotham, 2003).



Bully in Sight: How to Predict, Resist, Challenge and Combat Workplace Bullying, by Tim Field, (Success Unlimited, 1996).



In the Company of Women: Indirect Aggression Among Women: Why We Hurt Each Other and How to Stop, by Pat Heim, Susan A. Murphy and Susan K. Golant, (Putnam, 2001).



The Bully At Work, by Gary Naimie and Ruth Naimie, (Sourcebooks, 2000).



When the Wrong Woman Wins: Building Bullies and Perpetuating

Patriarchy, by Penny Brunner, associate professor of management at the University of North Carolina at Ashville; and Melinda Costello, associate professor of management and marketing at Siena College in Albany, NY.







