Harpers Bazaar UK April2020

By VIV GROSKOP

• REPORT-

O

A:

Q: CA N

YOU HELP

OTHER

WOM E N T O

THE TOP?

ne of the most memorable films about women and

work is All About Eve, starring Bette Davis as Margo

Channing, a Broadway star whose career is threatened

by a young rival, Eve Harrington, played by Anne Baxter.

It’s the classic story of an elegant, inevitable bitch fight between

two women who could have worked brilliantly together. Instead,

they have to hate each other and the message is: ‘This town ain’t

big enough for the both of us.’ The film, which was also recently

adapted into a theatre production starring Gillian Anderson and

Lily James, concludes that if women are to succeed, it will only

be one at a time. Anything you win will be at the expense of some-

one else and you will have to destroy her to get it – a storyline

that also plays out, somewhat gleefully, in the multi-award-winning

2018 drama The Favourite.

Delicious and entertaining as I find such stories, I think they

In a society where professional

opportunities still tend to be dominated by

men, supporting our female colleagues and

making productive connections may be the

route to gender equality in the workplace