Free Republic

She's the ultimate professional woman. So you'd think Hillary Clinton's biggest source of support would be other alpha females. But as the New York senator's presidential campaign works to mobilize women executives, doctors and lawyers around America, it's getting a reality check: Many have resisted the call-up. So far, she's doing better among women of more modest means. Professional women are "much harder sells" than men. "They're tough." They are less inclined than men to see things in black and white, and seek more information before deciding, this adviser says. Events for businesswomen must be substantive, because they frequently ask...

You can tell things aren't going to end well the moment the little cluster of girls starts to talk. Amanda, a junior at Lower Dauphin Middle School in Hummelstown, Pa., is in the cafeteria, commiserating with her friends about a monster test they all just took. Her friends are sure they tanked it, but Amanda has no such worries. "I aced it," she says airily, "but that's just me." As she gets up to clear her tray, the other girls exchange narrowed looks. "Let's trip her," one suggests. Another one nods, goes after Amanda and in an instant sends her...

SALT LAKE CITY - Meanness in girls can start when they still are toddlers, a Brigham Young University study found. It found that girls as young as 3 or 4 will use manipulation and peer pressure to get what they want. "It could range from leaving someone out to telling their friends not to play with someone to saying, 'I'm not going to invite you to my birthday party,'" said Craig Hart, study co-author and professor of marriage, family and human development at BYU. "Some kids are really adept at being mean and nasty." They regularly exclude others and threaten...

Study: Meanness in Girls Can Start at 3 Fri May 6, 8:33 PM ET SALT LAKE CITY - Meanness in girls can start when they still are toddlers, a Brigham Young University study found. It found that girls as young as 3 or 4 will use manipulation and peer pressure to get what they want. "It could range from leaving someone out to telling their friends not to play with someone to saying, 'I'm not going to invite you to my birthday party,'" said Craig Hart, study co-author and professor of marriage, family and human development at BYU. "Some kids...

Girls are sneaky. It happens daily to teenagers, from the tough street girls to the trendy, well-to-do fashionistas. It isn't anything obvious or -- God forbid -- physical, nothing that would ruffle a perfect ponytail. Even teachers on the lookout for it may not know it has happened. It is just a word, or two. A look. A wink. And then they're gone. No marks, no bruises. Girls aren't like that. They don't fight. They aren't crude or loud. They are quiet ... and mean. We all know about bullies -- boys who intimidate their peers, throw a punch, bump...

Braidie is just your average kid. She's a little melodramatic, maybe, and a handful for her mother, but nothing too out of the ordinary. So when she sees her friends cruelly hazing a girl at school, she does what most kids would do - absolutely nothing. Joan MacLeod's sober and gripping one-woman show "The Shape of a Girl," produced by a Canadian company, the Green Thumb Theater, and playing at the Duke on 42nd Street through Jan. 30, adds to the growing consensus in popular culture that "sugar-and-spice and everything nice" might have been overstating the case. In recent years,...

HE THOUGHT he saw it out of the corner of his eye. Nah, couldn't have been. Then an adult aide in his classroom confirmed what the teacher had almost missed. "There were two girls in the front of the classroom [groping] each other," he recalled. "They had stopped by the time [the aide] called my attention to it. But that's what it was." And that's what it is, but not only at Fitzsimmons Middle School, in North Philadelphia, where this scene took place two weeks ago. There are about a half-dozen high schools and at least two middle schools where...

Female Students Say They Fear Lesbians' Harassment School Holds Meeting On Alleged Threats POSTED: 6:49 pm EST February 18, 2004 UPDATED: 8:25 pm EST February 18, 2004 PHILADELPHIA -- Gang concerns brought parents and students together Wednesday at a west Philadelphia middle school. But the kind of gang may surprise you. Girls at the Turner Middle School allege that lesbian students are harassing them with gay remarks. The straight students say lesbians are bullying, groping and harassing them in gym and in the girl's bathrooms. Parents of the students say the harrassment must stop before it becomes violent. "I told...

Posted on Sun, Feb. 08, 2004 As complaints of fighting and harassment surface among lesbians and straight girls, Phila. struggles to adapt rules.By Susan Snyder Inquirer Staff Writer Philadelphia high schools are struggling with a new problem in student behavior: rising tensions between heterosexual and openly lesbian girls. Nationwide, lesbians increasingly are declaring their sexual orientation and publicly displaying their affection for each other at younger ages, and Philadelphia appears in step with that trend. The phenomenon has led to embarrassing moments in some cases and physical clashes in others. Accusations of intimidation have surfaced on both sides: from lesbians...

Rachel Simmons, author of two books on female bullying, has a confession to make -- she was once a bully herself. Appearing at Seattle Girls' School yesterday during a cross-country tour promoting her new book, the 29-year-old Brooklynite came clean to a group of about 100 middle-schoolers. Simmons told them about her best childhood friend. The pair were inseparable until ninth grade, when Simmons joined the popular clique and, at the whim of its leader, turned on her girlfriend. Without explanation, the group stopped talking to the girl, who was devastated. "She eventually left the school and she never came...