Any other younger women experience tension with older female colleagues?

I’m a 28-year-old woman working in corporate America (pharmaceutical advertising). Since entering the workforce, I’ve noticed a pattern that’s been hard to ignore: many of the women I interact with—often from an older generation—come across as dismissive or even openly combative.
It isn’t every person, of course, but it’s frequent enough that I’m curious whether this is generational, cultural, see below for continuation ..

Hmmm. I’m an older female in same field and I find the same fron younger colleagues. Sometimes openly hostile. Sometimes just sneaky. So I guess it can go both ways

As an ‘older’ woman I noticed that the young ones come in with an air of entitlement. Nobody wants to pay their dues anymore.
Yes, it is generational. We came up in a time where it was kill or be killed. As an intern, the older ladies were jealous of my wardrobe. I didn’t run to HR, I didn’t cry. I sucked it up. We dealt with it and did our business. This younger generation is just way too soft. Everything is ‘toxic’, everything hurts your feelings. It’s exhausting. I’m so relieved that I grew up with a spine.

Unfortunately it’s all too common. Since you can’t change them - please remember how much better a leader you can be when you get there!

OP, I think what you’re experiencing are women that are feeling their age, self conscious about it, and taking out their insecurities on you. Shrug them off, I know it’s hard but how they’re acting is really about how they feel about themselves. Not excusing their behavior at all, it sucks and I hope you have nice coworkers to balance it out.

I’m middle aged and find a lot of the women in my age group to be encroaching on Karen territory. Anytime I’ve gone into the office in the last 5 years and tried to make small talk with people the middle aged women (usually account and creative) have been the iciest. I get that COVID has made a lot of people socially awkward but come on, if someone says hello to you or holds the door don’t be rude and say nothing in return.

I have better rapport with coworkers that are half my age and since I’m rapidly approaching fifty I’m super thankful they don’t make me feel like an elderly grandma.

I’m a guy, but I’ve seen plenty of it from the sidelines.

Yes, i experienced this when I was in my 20s, particularly with a certain demographic of women.
How I overcame it, by being very good and becoming essential to the account. Always being strategic, thinking ahead and finding solutions quickly.

I strongly recommend reading the Let them theory by Mel Robbins.

Look up Queen Bee Syndrome. Working under women can be so awful that I’m hesitant to take jobs anymore unless my boss is a man

Loooool. When I worked in media sales when I was in my 20s older women hated me with a passion and would go after my career 🙃 it was a great time

Every place I go. Just this week…esp the higher you go up the ladder. I was just promoted to SVP at 33 and there’s a female SVP who’s maybe in her 50’s? She’s been that title for over a decade at several places. I recognize her experience and respect it but also I acknowledge that it doesn’t make me less qualified. I def don’t get that same respect from her…each interaction I have with her I’m reminded by her she has more years. 🙄

That’s unfortunate to hear. I always had really supportive women above me and now that I’m older, I try to be that for the younger ones. You never know what’s going on in someone’s head- it could be insecurity, stress, problems at home, etc. Try to find someone who you click with and seems trustworthy (and maybe that’s a guy) and try to get them to mentor you- they may be able to help bridge the gap or even give you tips on how to navigate these trickier relationships.

I’m so sorry you’re dealing with this- but remember the feeling and try not to let others feel this way when you get older and more successful! Good luck.

I noticed this repeatedly across different fields and in grad school. Women 20+ years my senior just seemed to hate me for no reason really often...then it faded as I aged.

Turns out people like this are just jealous of any younger woman. You can counteract it a bit by kissing up to them and avoiding telling them they're wrong as much as possible.

Not sure if there is an official name for it, but Ive seen it up close. Particularly with President/CEO types. They are atypically catty and cruel with younger women. Instead of being an ally, they ride them. My theory is that they probably endured a ton of BS on their way up, made sacrifices like family etc...and for some weird reason they keep the cycle going as opposed to disrupting/breaking it. I have always tried to be the mentor/manager that I wish I had when I was coming up. But to the original post, yeah - ive seen it, 100%.

Definitely have experienced this from boomer/gen x women. It’s like they got shit on being women in a male dominated industry and now feel like they need to haze younger women as a rite of passage. I usually ignore their passive aggressive remarks, unless it’s racist/sexist, and then I report it to HR so that these comments are documented on their personnel file.

I haven’t, and if I have I’ve not been aware of it. But I do see more people complaining about it how young people are getting ahead so fast.

I dont get why everyone gets bothered about other people’s achievements. Everyone a their “dues” what dues? This isn’t a union, if I have had AI back when I was a junior I will be leading conferences today, and probably a chief of something. Toxic people will always be there, and I’m gonna say 10 years ago when I started, belittling young people when you were a bad manager was a much more effective tactic than it is today.

To be honest, it’s not you, it’s most of the time them. Do your job; be proactive, and be someone who is flexible and collaborate, all the time try and be kind, know that it’s not about you, but set boundaries.

Absolutely. In nearly every job I’ve ever had.

Yes. Create visibility about the issue with your manager. Avoid isolated engagement (1:1 calls, teams chats…etc.) to help create a buffer and better visibility.

If they interrupt or cut you off during calls, just continue to keep talking anyways. It will make their behavior more apparent (if they don’t realize they are doing it) and demand their respect.

Of course, keep documentation if it’s getting out of hand.

As a guy who’s been doing this for 30+ years I’ve always thought that women treat each other horribly in advertising. Yes there’s the bro culture, but it seems like women were the polar opposite. I’ve had many female creative partners over the years and they all agreed.

The only thing uglier was their description of what the ladies bathroom stall was 🤢like.

Offer to help them navigate their iPhones. Help them join and then post something on social media. Show them how to load their credit cards into an electronic wallet. The fact is that this current generation is so very different from all previous "new" generations because of technology. A young person is scary to an older person because they can navigate our bold new world seamlessly and without thinking. And existing workers know they are falling more and more behind. Be helpful, tolerant and cognizant of their fear and you might survive just fine.

or just my own environment. For those of you who are also younger women in corporate settings, have you experienced something similar with older female colleagues? How have you navigated it?