Women, are we our own barriers when making careers?

Abstract: The scarcity of female leaders rise curiosity to explore the reasons of the phenomenon. Many attempts have been done to explain the scarcity but somehow it seems that investigations explore the same factors and not what has been seen as a taboo; women’s feelings and thoughts towards each other as obstacles in making careers. Therefore is the aim of this study: to gain knowledge about women’s feelings and thoughts about other women in a corporate environment to be able to draw conclusions whether this matter can be a contribution to the debate concerning obstacles for women to climb in their career. This research is conducted through an inductive approach with eight qualitative interviews choosing both women leaders and non-leaders. Jealousy and envy between women were discovered, which do not seem to restrain or create obstacles for other women but only or mostly, to women having these feelings and thoughts. Jealousy and envy are just a symptom of the real problem which is poor selfconfidence in the corporate environment. We discovered a vicious circle which shows us the connection between jealousy, self-confidence, competition and success. The vicious circle could be an input to the debate to explain obstacles that women could meet in their path to leading positions. Women have to start believing in themselves with help of society where she is not directly or indirectly restrained for the fact of being a woman.