That's basically the message author and journalist Harriet Rubin has for women working in the corporate world. Forget about fitting in with the boys' club, she recommends. If you can't beat them, don't join them. Start your own club instead. Girl gangs, a phrase Ms. Rubin has coined to describe a trend she sees developing, are groups of women who have chosen to work together either in their own company or as a unit within a traditional, large, male-dominated firm.
Gangs can be very powerful.
She agrees that they can also be intimidating to outsiders. Ms. Rubin says by working in groups together, women can take control and do their job in their own way. But it may not be by playing by the rules. As inspiration, Ms. Rubin uses the example of a woman who leads an all-female team within an unnamed major organization. The woman in question was ready to head for more female-friendly fields, but was enticed to stay by the opportunity to run her own department and fill it with whomever she wished.