Female rivalry at work: Case of Moroccan executives in the industrial sector

Abstract

As part of a doctoral research on professional equality between women and men, we carried out a qualitative study with the aim of making Moroccan female executives talk about their working conditions in the private industrial environment. The question of interpersonal relationships at work was thus addressed; the eighteen women interviewed were invited to reveal their preference as to the gender of their superiors, colleagues and collaborators. The results were surprising: the majority (67%) of respondents say they prefer to work with and for men and only 16% of respondents support their female peers.

Given the sexism that characterizes the workplace, especially the industrial one, this result seems to be illogical since we expect female solidarity to face gender discrimination at work.

At work, is the woman really the enemy of the woman? How conflicts between women manifest themselves? What are the causes? How can we limit female rivalry at work? It is to these questions that we will try to answer throughout this article.