An unusually long contribution...
I consider myself a strong minded energetic person but nothing close to a feminist. When in the past I have heard stories about how women are not really treated fairly at work and even some times abused, I kind of thought it was part of those anecdotal experiences exaggerated by feminists to give more emphasis to their points.
I believe the glass ceiling in professional progression for women is a reality. I always thought that it was caused primarily by a set of cultural habits embedded into society, and preconceived role and family models rather than a high hostile attitude from female colleagues. This perception has changed through the years.
When I was in my teens and twenties, I was mainly surrounded by men at uni. Their attitude towards me was good, as good as to any other mate. I could not see the difference in treatment from teachers or my supervisors at the internships I took. As I grew older, I progressed and held more responsibility, I started seeing a change in attitude. First, I dealt with an apparently harmless patronising attitude from my boss. Then, the not so professional comments from colleagues appeared. I was once congratulated by my boss in public for my perseverance, being described as the team's 'pitbull with lipstick'. Honestly, whoever knows me well, also knows that I do not behave like a pitbull at all, however the lack of consideration towards me fades when you realise that most likely no man would have been called publicly 'pitbull with a tie' unless there was a real good reason to brag in private, and still...
Going down my thirties the aggressiveness of my colleagues, above all, if I have to interact with them often or I need to share disparate points of view, has just gone up. The latest on that front has come from catching an e-mail exchange in German (and thus I should have had no clue of what it was saying) mentioning that 'Ana, this lady, well, you know, she is like any other woman, speaks a lot but actually says little or nothing'. You can only imagine what I felt when reading this. Even if I only grant as much importance to the words as the level of intelligence of the man who wrote them. This was my introduction to somebody important in the business from one of my male colleagues...
I only think that this will get worst with age. It might be as horrible and stressful in the corporate world for men, I do not know. But, if I had a family and somebody who actually cared and treated me nicely at home, I would not have any encouragement to go up any corporate ladder an contribute positively to the company health and success, as women do, by facing more and more abuse.
It seems that some women still have and can afford an apparently nicer but maybe not completely fullfiling option...
NOTE from the author one month later... might be hard some days, but I love what I do and I am very grateful for the support I've got (family, friends and colleagues). Fortunately, these anecdotes simply make the effort more worth it
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