Reply To: Women working in a male-dominated industry

[Andrew Garulay, RLA]

The question is not whether or not discrimination exists – and it exists everywhere to one degree or another. The question is what is the next course of action.

 

Discrimination is usually subtle and hard to decipher. That makes it very difficult to prove. It also is very easy to believe that any bump in the road is attributable to discrimination simply because it is hard to decipher.

 

Do you go for a law suit? Do you complain to others involved in the project? Do you go to Facebook? Is any of that going to help your situation? No. It might get you sympathy, empathy, and stir people up, but in the end when you are sitting at a table surrounded by these people how are you going to be heard? There are two options – remove the obstacle or overcome it.

 

The only fact that can be found in this thread is that BZ does not believe she is respected in the work place. The reasons why are assumptions. They may or may not be true. The focus of effort to resolve the problem should be to do everything she can to gain respect in the work place in every way possible. Everything else is like attacking windmills – they simply don’t change the fundamental problem that this individual is not feel respected professionally.

 

I find it hard to believe that every man in that room has no respect for each and every woman that they have ever worked with. That is an absurd assumption to me, but without that assumption there is only one course of action. That is to be a high performance employee, to understand the philosophy of the office, the goals of the office, and to adopt their reasoning and methods. There are many business models out there and many really good ideas are great in one and do not fit another. If anyone is not on the same page with that, they will not be listened to and respected until they are on the same page.

 

Moving forward involves eliminating other factors that may cause one to not be respected. The only way to do that is adapting to the ways of that office and performing toward those goals with a lot of effort. If that does not work, you can then have more reason to believe that it is gender.

 

“So where do you draw the line of dignity? At what point do you say, NO i will not be a doormat and allow myself to be blatantly trampled on all for the sake of the sacred cow, the ever-coveted ‘at least you have a job’? At what point do you stand up for yourself and your self respect? Or should i just lay down like a good little doormat and take it, because after all, at least i have a job?  From BZ in the “crappy job” thread.

 

Does this sound like someone who is looking to fit in and work hard to gain respect? It does not sound that way to me, but I may be genderphobic and not know it.

 

Throughout the history of the world removal of this obstacle (discrimination) has never been done. The only alternative is to overcome it.