The Sisterhood Paradox: Rivalry by Design

Nothing exposes society’s fear of powerful women more clearly than its obsession with pitting us against each other.

Instead of celebrating multiple women rising at once, the world insists on choosing favorites, manufacturing competition where none naturally exists and framing women as rivals even when their work has nothing to do with each other.

The Competition We’re Told to Embrace

We’ve all seen it. Headlines like “Why Greta Thunberg is the real deal and Malala is not” or “Taylor Swift dethroned Beyoncé as best female songwriter” dominate cultural conversations. Pieces debating “whether Serena Williams or Naomi Osaka is the “real” champion”. Or pieces asking “who matters more to feminism: Emma Watson or Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie?”.

It’s a revolving carousel designed not to uplift, but to divide, because these narratives don’t exist to enlighten or inspire.

They exist to force a choice. To push us to pick sides. To imply that admiration must be exclusive, that success is a zero-sum game, and that only one woman at a time deserves to occupy the spotlight.

And it doesn’t stop at celebrity level.

This narrative trickles into real life: into classrooms, offices, boardrooms and investor meetings.

When two male founders build companies in entirely different industries, no one pits them against each other.

But when two women do, suddenly it becomes a contest.

This is the paradox: we praise sisterhood loudly, while the systems around us quietly profit from keeping women apart.

The question is no longer why this happens, but how we tear it down.

Our own experience

As founders in our niche, we’ve experienced the sisterhood paradox up close.

From the very beginning, it seemed like everyone wanted to pit us against the other amazing women working in our space with financially empowering women.

Investors, journalists, and even peers would frame us as competitors by default: assuming we didn’t get along and that our success was a threat to one another.

Questions like “How do you plan to win over them?” or “How are you better than them?” were asked as if rivalry was inevitable.

It takes a lot of conscious effort not to internalize these narratives.

Because when everyone around you tells you the same story, it’s very easy to believe.

Maybe there is only room for one player in our space.

Maybe we do need to win over the other women in our niche.

But we realized early on that these stories are imposed from outside, not born from our actual experiences or intentions.

So we made a different choice.

We reached out.

We invited these women into our world.

We had dinners together, went for lunch, met at each other’s apartments, shared drinks after long days.

And something remarkable happened: instead of competition, we found collaboration.

Instead of rivalry, we found friendship.

And instead of scarcity, we found abundance.

We learned from each other, supported each other, and celebrated each other’s wins.

We discovered that the success of one doesn’t diminish the success of another - it amplifies it.

Because in reality, we are stronger together.

It’s time to look in the mirror

Take a moment and think about the women in your life.

How often have you been measured against them by colleagues, friends, family, or even strangers?

How often has someone asked you to pick a “winner” or suggested that another woman’s success somehow diminishes your own?

Now, be honest with yourself: how often do you compare women around you?

How often do you catch yourself ranking, judging, or assuming there must be a hierarchy?

It’s not about guilt, it’s about awareness.

These habits are learned, shaped by a culture that profits from division.

The sisterhood paradox isn’t something that only happens to other people; it exists in all of us until we actively challenge it.

Recognizing the ways in which we participate - consciously or unconsciously - is the first step toward breaking the cycle.

Because the truth is simple: every time we stop competing and start supporting, we rewrite the rules.

Every time we lift another woman up, we create a space where everyone can thrive.

When Women Rise Together, the World Changes

Imagine a world where women refuse to accept the sisterhood paradox: where rivalry is replaced by collaboration, comparison by celebration, and scarcity by abundance.

Imagine women supporting women not because it’s trendy or expected, but because it’s powerful, transformative, and necessary.

When we stop internalizing the narratives designed to divide us, we unlock an unstoppable force. Each success becomes a spark that lights another.

Each achievement proves that there’s room for all of us at the top.

Together, we rewrite the story - of business, of creativity, of leadership, and of society itself.

The sisterhood paradox isn’t inevitable.

It’s a choice, a story the world has written for us, but one we can choose to rewrite.

And when we do, there’s nothing we can’t achieve.

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