Sexism is available in abundance in our world. The number of side-eyes and even the outright offensive statements you hear while driving are enough to infer our society is actually doomed. The scenario exists even in corporate workspaces a lot of times where you’re treated differently in an undermining sense of the way just because you’re not a man.
Corporate sexism manifests itself in the kind of questions you’re asked in interviews, the work you’re given that’s beyond your KRA, the way your inputs are received, how your male juniors report to you, and so much more. Women online have shared their experiences of subtle sexism in corporate spaces, and they’re worth pondering over.
1. “In my office, the upper level management doesn’t want us to hire women for anything tech related and men aren’t supposed to be hired for anything admin related. My boss laughs at male resumes that we get for secretary positions. This makes me super uncomfortable.”
2. “‘She must be on her period’ ‘Is it that time of the month?’, anytime a woman reacts negativity to something (usually someone being an ass to them)”
3. “My boss calls me his “girl” rather than his paralegal. Instead of having a normal fucking conversation at lunch, he wanted to talk about my choice of nail polish color.”
4. “During my first internship as a software developer, I had a team leader who never worked with a woman in this field before. He’s also from another country where women just didn’t do this kind of work. He was stumped I wouldn’t babysit his baby or cook lunch for the team.”
– snooj
5. “Some people assume that you got admitted simply because of your gender (ie. a more qualified male was rejected because of you). Ignore those people.”
– DSrcl
6. “Women are paid less, are not considered for promotion and management positions to the degree that men are, are expected to accept worse shifts.”
7. “A lot of clients just don’t trust me to be the intelligent one in the room. I will do tons and tons of research and answer every question asked of me well and quickly, but if I position myself as the lead in the case, they don’t come back. Positioned as the helpful junior partner, they do.”
– kbooky90
8. “In tech jobs, the woman gets asked to do the documentation while the man gets asked to do the development. Another variation: male developers aren’t asked or required to document their work. Or: woman gets asked to take minutes at the meeting. Not once in my life have I ever seen a male couterpart been asked to take minutes or notes at a meeting..”
Yet, hundreds of people will turn up to deny sexism exists in the first place. That’s the state of affairs.
