Linda Tripp and Tonya Harding might go down in history as feminism's worst nightmare.
Their devious deed: They sabotaged another woman -- Monica Lewinsky in Tripp's case and Nancy Kerrigan in Harding's. They set a sister up, knocked her down, stabbed her in the back and left her writhing on the floor while they walked away without a second thought."It's despicable, it's catty -- and it's all too common," says Judith Briles, author of the new book "Woman to Woman 2000," which explores woman-on-woman sabotage in the workplace.
According to Briles, more than 75 percent of women in one survey she conducted said they had been "undermined" by another woman in the workplace.
Some common sabotage tactics: somebody taking credit for your work, failing to give you important messages, betraying confidences, passing on false information about you.
"It can be as simple as plain old-fashioned gossip, which is one of the easiest ways to destroy one's career," says Briles, who lives in the Denver area.
Why are so many sabotaging their fellow women? Briles believes one reason is fear: Since women are usually lower on the corporate ladder than men, they feel more threatened in the workplace. They tend to strike out more at other women because they're more likely to have power over them, Briles says.
"It's also really important to stress that this is not an exclusive female issue," Briles says. "This goes on with men, too, but there are differences. Men are usually more overt, blatant. Women are more likely to deliver sabotage in a more covert way.
"Like the wind, you can feel it. . . . It's present and here, but you're just not sure where it originated."
Briles' theory could be considered heresy in feminist circles. After all, wasn't the women's movement all about empowering a sisterhood ready to take its rightful place in what had long been a man's world?
Well, certainly that sisterhood does exist. Witness organizations like the Colorado Springs, Colo., nonprofit Women's Resource Agency, which, for roughly a quarter of a century, has been helping women enter the workplace through workshops and one-on-one counseling.
"I've worked in a women's organization for a long time, and we've always worked as a team," says Betty Osgood, a counselor at the agency.
However, Osgood and Briles appear to be on the same page on at least one count. Osgood sees a lot of the same insecurity in women that Briles does.
Lorayne LoCascio, a Colorado Springs real estate appraiser, has run into a different kind of woman in the workplace.
"I'd work with a guy any day," LoCascio says. "There's something about the female gender. What I have found is if you work very hard and do very well, women try to drag you down. I have found rather than try to work together . . . they work against each other."
LoCascio, now 34, recalls that when she was 27 and working her way through college, an older female co-worker in her office reacted poorly when LoCascio was promoted.
"She did not like the fact that I was promoted at such a young age. I remember she refused to work out my college schedule."
But more troublesome were the negative vibes she picked up.
"You could walk into the room and feel the ice," she says.
The current poster girl for sabotage is Tripp, who covertly recorded phone conversations in which Lewinsky talked about her relationship with President Clinton. As all the world knows, Tripp turned the recordings over to independent counsel Ken Starr.
"Let's just look at her methodology," Briles says. "She had befriended this Lewinsky. She befriended her and brought her into her ring of confidence. They shared drinks. They shared stay-overs. They shared meals. Lewinsky believed . . . that Linda Tripp was her friend, and friends don't do things to friends that would purposely be set up to harm them.
"When Monica Lewinsky says, 'I hate Linda Tripp,' I do understand that."
Briles, in fact, began to study the sabotage phenomenon after she was betrayed by a woman with whom she owned several small hotels.
"I had a female partner who was a good friend," says Briles, who has a doctoral degree in business and has written other books on women's issues. "She got in trouble with drugs and embezzled a lot of money."
What are the Lewinskys of the world to do -- other than, of course, hire some really good attorneys?
The main point of Briles' book is to teach women how to cope with sabotage. Her book goes into great detail on the steps women can take.
The first is to acknowledge what is happening and confront the perpetrator -- not always an easy thing for women to do.
As little girls, Briles says, girls are taught by their mothers that it's not nice to fight; that's why they often avoid it.
"We carry that mentality. . . . confronting someone feels somewhat like fighting," Briles says. "They sidestep and avoid it. Continuing to blow it off only helps breed it."