Re:Working While Female
by peterwwillis on Saturday March 11, 2017 @02:34PM
(#13846780)
So you think you'll just be sitting at lunch with your female coworker, and she'll say "Hey Ralph, did I tell you the funny story about last week when I was with a client going over a report and he told me my tits would look even better in a low-cut shirt? Pass the salt." Nobody wants to talk about being humiliated, especially by someone they work with. At the very least they're humiliated again by talking about it. At worst you actually make a fuss about it to someone and they may suffer consequences to having told about it.
Women have been speaking up for decades, at various times in various industries. This is not new. What is new is that women are starting to realize that a lot of men are bewildered when they learn what's been going on right under their noses, or that men are outright denying that it's happening. This pisses women off. So they have started to be more vocal, both inspired by their peers and as a rejection of the indifference of men.
Yes, it looks like bandwagoning, because it is a form of bandwagoning. Really it's a classical information cascade. These are very common, and the comment "Why would this change now?" is an indicator of one. The simplest way to explain it is that people feel more emboldened when they aren't going to be the only one in the street fighting for their cause. The more women that share their stories, the more women are inspired to tell theirs because they don't fear the humiliation and repercussions as much.
And nobody's saying you shouldn't be chewed out if you do a bad job. What they're saying is women have to work much harder to gain the same respect a man gets. It's a very old, common trope that i'm sure you've heard before. To put it in perspective, have you ever been asked if you had sex to get your position, or if you're single, or had someone comment on how you look? That is _one_ aspect. The others are the lower pay, the higher scrutiny of your work compared to your peers, the smaller representation in management positions and fewer opportunities to be promoted, and being talked over like you're invisible. If you don't think it's a common thing, ask all the women you know each of these things and tick off the boxes.
Women have been speaking up for decades, at various times in various industries. This is not new. What is new is that women are starting to realize that a lot of men are bewildered when they learn what's been going on right under their noses, or that men are outright denying that it's happening. This pisses women off. So they have started to be more vocal, both inspired by their peers and as a rejection of the indifference of men.
Yes, it looks like bandwagoning, because it is a form of bandwagoning. Really it's a classical information cascade. These are very common, and the comment "Why would this change now?" is an indicator of one. The simplest way to explain it is that people feel more emboldened when they aren't going to be the only one in the street fighting for their cause. The more women that share their stories, the more women are inspired to tell theirs because they don't fear the humiliation and repercussions as much.
And nobody's saying you shouldn't be chewed out if you do a bad job. What they're saying is women have to work much harder to gain the same respect a man gets. It's a very old, common trope that i'm sure you've heard before. To put it in perspective, have you ever been asked if you had sex to get your position, or if you're single, or had someone comment on how you look? That is _one_ aspect. The others are the lower pay, the higher scrutiny of your work compared to your peers, the smaller representation in management positions and fewer opportunities to be promoted, and being talked over like you're invisible. If you don't think it's a common thing, ask all the women you know each of these things and tick off the boxes.