Catty Women: Why Can't We Just Get Along?

I don't mind a healthy dose of competition, but that is not what I am seeing amongst women these days. We're not in it to work hard and do our best, without clawing and scratching each other. I have seen it in the academic environment, where women purposefully are difficult, cold, and mean to each other. But, they seem to act different around men. What about this working mom versus stay-at-home mom banter? Working moms have two full-time jobs, one at home and one at work. Stay-at-home moms do not get paid for the multiple hats and responsibilities they attempt to juggle and do not get recognized in the working world for what they do. I've written some about it here. I have seen working moms attack stay-at-home moms for what they do (or don't do) and vice versa. I have seen moms who choose to feed their baby or babies formula attack breastfeeding moms for various reasons, and I have seen breastfeeding moms not so supportive of moms who fed their babies formula. Must we attack other people of the same gender to make ourselves feel better? Is it possible for us to encourage each other in an otherwise cut-throat competitive world? Being a mom, breastfeeding or formula-feeding, is rough and comes with loads of responsibilities and challenges. A working woman or a woman who has chosen to stay at home each faces different challenges that are difficult in varying ways. Heck, being a woman in America still isn't all that easy - women still make less than men for the same job and same qualifications (is it $.80 to every $1.00 a man makes) and women are not as easily respected as men. Can we support each other as women, in whatever we do?