"for the last 4 I've worked in a female-dominated department, and I've never seen such cattiness, bitchiness, gossiping, etc" -

You should talk to my wife about this. She teaches at an elementary school where for some reason most of the teachers are women and she absolutely hates it. She's aways complaining about bitches, drama queens, grandstanders and queen bees that she works with. The women where she works all seem to hate each other. In fact the principle is making an effort to deliberately hire more male teachers to create a better balance.