Vanessa Vershaw

What should you do when another woman is excluding, undermining, or damaging your confidence at work? In this Quick Lift, Betsy shares the key takeaways and action steps from her conversation with Vanessa Vershaw, author of The Sisterhood Paradox. She explores how to tell the difference between workplace conflict and a repeated pattern of bullying, why women often minimize harmful behavior, and how to get clarity before the situation begins affecting the way you see yourself. Betsy also shares practical ways to document what is happening, seek an objective perspective, evaluate whether the workplace is likely to change, and begin building an exit strategy when necessary. And because this conversation cannot only be about the women who have hurt us, she challenges all of us to look more honestly at how we support, include, compete with, and speak about other women. Real support is not avoiding conflict. It is choosing to handle it differently.

We talk a lot about the boys’ club. But what happens when the person making work harder for a woman is another woman? In this honest and thought-provoking conversation, Betsy sits down with organizational psychologist, leadership expert, and author Vanessa Vershaw to explore The Sisterhood Paradox—the complicated reality of women undermining, excluding, and sometimes bullying other women at work. Vanessa explains why these experiences are often difficult to recognize and even harder to talk about. She shares the difference between a difficult colleague and a true workplace bully, why exclusion can be one of the most damaging forms of aggression, and what women can do when the person targeting them holds more power. They also discuss why “women supporting women” cannot simply be a slogan, the importance of accountability, and what it will take to build stronger and more honest support systems for women. Because the boys’ club may be real. But women still have work to do to …