I posed a question to hundreds of women in numerous environments from diverse backgrounds:

Can you recall an experience in your life when you were bullied either by another woman or by a group of women that you would write about?

Is Sisterhood Powerful? includes a selection of those essays. In them, women detailed their experiences of having been bullied by other women, referred to as female-to-female aggression. Regardless of whether their stories were about events that occurred during childhood, adulthood, in the workplace or even on social media, their experiences had a significant, enduring and traumatic affect. For some, the events occurred as far back in their lives as during high school but, regardless, the common coping strategy was for them to try to forget and relegate their experiences to the past.

Many of those whose essays are included in my book claimed that they always felt somewhat responsible for —possibly even deserving of, the treatment they’d experienced.

Raising awareness about a persistent societal problem that receives limited attention is essential if we hope to eradicate it. Female relational aggression has been well-researched but mostly as a topic for professional publications, career-related training and academic journals. Overall, attention to the phenomenon has decreased owing to increased focus upon gender discrimination and workplace harassment of women by men.

The effects upon women victims of female aggression are just as noteworthy as are the impacts on those who experienced bullying by men, although the effects manifest themselves in more subtle and vastly different ways. Regardless the gender of the bullies or bullied, the impact upon victims of bullying is long-lasting and understated.