There's also the ''women can't work with women'' stereotype depicting women as destructive competitors. She said don't assume the worst. Let women prove themselves first. This belief is somewhat due to the confusing expectations about how women are supposed to conduct themselves, with women expecting other women to be caring and friendly and put relationships first. But when the pressure is on and a woman seems more devoted to the bottom line than to the emotional needs of her colleagues, or if a woman sometimes comes across as ''not nice'' when she has to be direct about her needs, she might get pegged as a cold, destructive woman.
Some women are afraid of seeming needy or weak if they ask for help.
Or they are afraid a potential mentor would reject them. Consider what you or someone you know may be missing. Best selling author, radio talk show host, contributor to television, syndicated columnist and a career consultant, Andrea has written over 500 articles on careers and workplace issues as writer of a weekly newspaper column since 1988. Her column, which is syndicated through Gannett, appears in The Cincinnati Enquirer every Monday. Andrea s video tape,Common Mistakes in Interviews and How to Overcome Them, was published by Cambridge Educational in 1995 and is sold to schools, corporations and libraries.