Woman v. Woman

About two weeks ago at this time I had landed in California. For any of you that do not know, I was there on business to attend a training for my fairly new job, as well as squeeze in a weekend mini vacation with one of my oldest and dearest friends.
I arrived at the hotel to find a welcome envelope waiting for me. In this envelope was a list of the other people who would be attending. All of these folks came from all around the country as well as one from Canada. As soon as I saw the list I started analyzing and calculating. I immediately calculated the female to male ratio. I looked at the names of the females and tried to assess their personalities. Who would be the prettiest? Who the smartest? Wait, I am lying to you...the questions were more of who will be prettier than me, smarter, etc. I started sizing up the competition before I even met them. As I write this I see the foolishness. I am asking myself the question that you are probably asking yourself, what was the competition? I cannot articulate the answer.
Woman tend to see each other as competition even when there is no prize. Where did we learn this? I was never in beauty pageants, I was never prom queen, etc. Yet my hackles get raised whenever I know there are going to be other unknown women involved in whatever I do. I value my girlfriends above much else. But yet, I still sat in that hotel room and pondered what these girls would be like.
The women in my training class ended up being wonderful. Two of them I became fast friends with, and can see them in my life forever. They are beautiful, strong, wonderful, welcoming women. I have few girlfriends at 30, at least few girlfriends that live close to me, that I talk to every day. One of my closest friends and I, often discuss how we wish we could bring more into the circle. How nice it would be to have more girlfriends. But yet, we often also ask why it is so hard to make more?
I know I am not the only woman who sizes other women up as competition for an unnamed and non-existent prize. I would like to think that as soon as I actually meet the other female, as long as they are not rude to me, I am willing to let them in. I guess I don't understand when women stopped seeing each other as allies, and began first seeing them as competition. Maybe it was woman's lib that stopped that occurring? What? Am I a woman that is complaining about woman's lib? Yes. This is part 1....stay tuned.