This Man Did A Sexism Experiment With A Female Co-Worker, And Was Completely Surprised By The Results
Some may say that sexism at work doesn’t exist or it’s exaggerated, but this man just experienced what it’s like to walk in a woman’s shoes.
Martin R. Schneider, a writer and editor at Front Row Central, accidentally sent emails to a client under his female co-worker’s name, and was completely surprised by the results.
He decided to post the whole story on twitter and it instantly went viral. Read the full story below. (h/t)
Martin R. Schneider accidentally sent emails to a client under his female co-worker’s name
Image credits: SchneidRemarks
Nicole’s boss constantly complained that it took her too long to work with clients
Image credits: SchneidRemarks
Martin assumed it was because she was less experienced than him
Image credits: SchneidRemarks
However, one day he accidentaly emailed a client under Nicole’s name…
Image credits: SchneidRemarks
The client was very rude and only later Martin noticed the email signature
Image credits: SchneidRemarks
When he switched back to his own email signature the client’s response improved immediately
Image credits: SchneidRemarks
This is why they decided to do a little experiment, which Martin later said “f*cking sucked”
Image credits: SchneidRemarks
Image credits: SchneidRemarks
Nicole, on the other hand, had “the most productive week of her career”
Image credits: SchneidRemarks
Image credits: SchneidRemarks
The boss? He didn’t buy it!
Image credits: SchneidRemarks
While Marting was completely shocked, Nicole said she was “USED to it”
Image credits: SchneidRemarks
Image credits: SchneidRemarks
Someone later pointed out that it would have been even worse with black-sounding female names
Image credits: notladymary
Image credits: SchneidRemarks
Image credits: SchneidRemarks
Image credits: notladymary
Have you experienced sexism at work? Share your story below!
I work on boats and women driving as captain have some problems to find respect from the clients :( the worse is that i have already heard some women entering the boat when a woman is driving " maybe we should wait for the next one..."...so sad... and talking about my job I can tell that all women driving boats are more serious and professional than a lot of male captains...
My wife is a boat captain and has worked on the seas for 17 years. She's driven in every kind of evil the North Atlantic can throw at her and done it better than most could dream of and yet getting respect from so many of her male coworkers will simply never happen. It both breaks my heart and makes me mad as hell.
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I used to work as senior sales associate/technical support in big chain computer stores. All my coworkers were male, but support was done by me&one other guy since we had the technical knowledge. A client came in when I was the only one on the floor and my manager was in the backoffice doing paperwork. He asked to have a tech consult so I said I'd be happy to help him. He glanced at me and said that he'd rather talk to "one of the tech guys", so I replied that I'm the tech "guy" at this store and how can I help. He explained his minor issue with transferring files, but he also said how he felt like wasting time explaining it to me just to have to tell it again when I "get a guy on the floor" to help him. I tried to explain that there's no one else coming and how to fix the issue. He didn't believe me and pushed for manager. When I got my mg there he deliberately pretended to not know the fix and loudly asked for my help. I explained again and sexist client left happily without apology.
I am not the tech "guy" anywhere, just having somewhat deeper knowledge of IT than people around me. Yet men just simply push me off when it comes to computers. "Let me help you", "Let me do it for you" and I shouldn't be offended. So many times then I watch them struggly with something that I could have solved easily...
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What about the boss?? He/She sucks by not believing without checking. F#ck that!!
He was presented with proof AND refused to believe it, that's even worse.
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So why don't you guys just all use a "support@mycompany.com" email address and sign everything "Support Team"? I have always thought that removing names and addresses from job applications and resumes might give companies an upper hand in hiring because it would remove a great deal of unrecognized prejudices and would just let their work and experience speak for them. Of course, you still have the face to face interviews - but hopefully by then those doing the interviewing would be able to recognize their own prejudices and could make a real effort not to allow those prejudices keep their company from hiring the best person for the job. We can dream, can't we?
Agreed. Or sign it with your initials, or first initial and last name.
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Try being deaf. Immediately you get judged for whether you're intelligent enough or not. Most people would assume our IQ is below average...
I'm with you! I'm hard of hearing! I can commendate with others.
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I'm a retired female cop and was actually asked, "Do you carry a gun like the MEN?", all the time.
Sounds familiar... I'm a female skydiving instructor w/close to 2.5k jumps. Once, when walking back to the van with parachutes over our shoulder I was the last one . Older guy in the public: Did YOU just jump out of an airplane too????? LOL Also a female skydiving instructor does not always go over well with guys, especially military groups. Mostly it's OK though, and some female students go like 'Well, if she can do it, maybe I can too' :-)
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I'm a medical student and whenever I tell people I'm applying to General Surgery for residency, I'm always asked how I'll balance work and children. Do they ever ask my male classmates this? Of course not....
I used to work at a hardware store and would occasionally get dismissed by customers because of my sex. The worst offenders? Elderly women and professionally dressed men in their 30's. The most open minded? Blue collar men. Contractors could recognize knowledge very quickly but those with no hands on experience wanted a man. I heard one lady ask a male co-worker the same question she asked of me 5 minutes previous. I chuckled when he gave her the same answer -she still wasn't happy.
I feel you Karen! It's ridiculous how similar my experiences are with yours. I work at an auto collision center. I do the estimating and some of the time, I would get questioned because of my gender. It used to bother me more when I was younger and inexperienced. However, I've learned to show those ppl the door quite quickly haha
Load More Replies... I've been an engineer for 27 years in the aerospace industry and in the consumer electronics industry. In my younger days, I was the 'cute' voice around the table. In my later days, I have influence but my voice is still a lone voice representing the female population in product designs. It's sad that products are often designed neglecting 50+% of the population.
So dumbasses are screwing themselves out of profit? smh
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At the age of 20 I landed a place at a high profile networking event at the Edinburgh Film Festival. The event was attended by representatives from all the leading media corporations...your TV household names. I practised my pitch all day, determined to make the best possible impression. I shouldn't have bothered. They were all young men in suits who literally smirked and winked at each other. They looked through me with condescending smiles while I tried to secure a work placement and then simply asked me out to dinner. It was my first experience of sexism in the workplace and it was heartbreaking.
I think it's interesting (irritatingly) that when I was in school, I felt pressure to be getting better grades than boys. I don't entirely know why that is, it just kinda felt like, that since I was a girl, I was expected to work harder. Yet, on the workforce, it appears that girls having worked harder than other boys doesn't seem to have made much difference...
I work in a technical support. We have such customers as well and also some male co-workers needed time to take my opinion serious
No women should be 'use to it' . Both men & women should be treated with the same respect
Yes, where is the portal to that utopia? We can say it over and over again, it's NOT how things are and it's NOT going to be how we change it, either. The moment Nicole would have complained, she would have been dismissed. A *MAN* told the boss and he didn't believe him, you think he's going to consider anything she has to say?
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This entire article is ironic in itself that this guy and other people would be "so shocked" by the results, when we women have been saying this for YEARS. But of course since we're women, nobody wanted to listen. But when a guy comes along and mentions it, suddenly everyone is all ears. Good grief.
F*****g sad that we women have to deal with that. I grew up with boys, so luckily I don't take s**t from anyone, ESPECIALLY men! Especially if they are my managers. My boss is a f*****g r****d, who thinks he knows everything. The amount of mansplaining he tries to do. After a few times, I started to shower him with sarcasm, till he got the point!
I'm working as a Community Manager and Costumer Servise for a mobile game company sinve January. For now, we've been pretty fair to each other, at least work-wise, I don't think I experienced any sexism from co-workers here yet. But as a CM and CS worker in a GAME company, I AM extra careful about the leak of my personal identity when communicating with our audience, and it's exactly for these sexist reasons. Even my male colleague had some slightly uncomfortable online situations with our players when his identity leaked, I can immagine if those perverts found out I were female, I'd end up deleting many comments and banning many users for "inappropriate behaviour".
I work at the architectural department of my town's town hall. I can't even remember how many times male architects tried to convince me that I didn't know my job...
I design and sell kitchens. The amount of fellas whose faces clearly read 'here we go, what does a bird know about Kitchens?' is ridiculous. Well the answer is a lot actually, but I have to enforce this every single time I speak to a male, even some female clients
Stereotypically speaking, if women don't know kitchen, men know more??
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Lori, While he may be a perceived 'hero', he did go out of his way to learn the truth and present his findings to the boss. Encouraging this type of positive support for women is the point of the 'He for She' campaign. Women can't do it alone. We need these types of supportive behaviors, and it is wrong of us to dismiss his efforts and his intentions. Positive reinforcement is needed in the social media.
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Presumably men who have gender neutral or names that are feminine would have these problems when communicating digitally with strangers? People named Kelly, Kim, Ashley, Shannon, Stacy etc
I've actually had this issue. At one of my jobs I had to chase a client around for weeks to get an approval for a design, I'm assuming because of my feminine sounding name.
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God just a few hours ago i was playing wow whit men since i'm the only female raider and these 2 guys who are not even core were telling me tacts on bosses and i was like yeah i know i'm core and you're not? Who do you think that you are talking to bEaatch!?
Shame it happens got a female best friend and shes great at pvp and league of legends but keeps her name neutral so she doesn't get given s**t by random people very annoying, good luck :D
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I work as a storeperson. People (men and women) who come in with a query will ignore me and talk to the nearest man or won't believe me until a man confirms what I'm saying (even though I have more experience than most of them). It's just something you get used to.
Can't change idiots you can only get use to them. Good luck
Load More Replies... My attending slept through all my presentations. At the end of the rotation he told me I should be happy to know I was an "average" student.
Same story for me pretty much. I was a mechanic and always got shite for taking too long. The guys never had to deal with what I did though. QA would take forever if I needed them, I couldn't get anything I needed fromnany of the males, and even if I completed more jobs quicker I was still considered the slow one. Men constantly hit on me and grabbed on me, and then turned ME in if i defended myself. It sucked so bad I changed careers.
From experience i trust women workers then men workers. Women are more efficient, more practical and don't complain as much as men. Workspaces should be filled with hard working women. Success is guaranteed.
you know that this kind of comment does not help woman or equality cause? As you can't say that men aren't superior to women in general, you can't say that women are more efficient. The whole point is to treat everyone equally whatever their gender.
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the fact that anyone finds this surprising in the least is sad. less pay, more difficult to do ones job, fewer opportunities, and then go home to job #2. can't win.
I work in a law firm where the majority of employees are women, it's about 70/30 or 55/45 if you count outside support staff (IT, accounting, etc.). The founding partner (a man) doesn't like hiring male legal assistants because he feels they don't work as hard as female legal assistant's, aren't as loyal, or respectful. While only one of the three partners is a woman, only 2 of the associates are men and the other 10 are women. In fact, we just hired another lawyer who is a woman. In my duties (kind of a jack of all trades, I do whatever is needed), I read a lot of the emails that go back and forth between our firm, our clients and whomever we're dealing with on behalf of our clients. While things can sometimes get heated with opposing counsel (we're dealing with people's livelihoods and reputations), I don't believe anyone has ever been disrespectful to any of the women in our firm because they're women.
I have a theory about women laywers being, on average, treated with more respect and acceptance than many women doing other jobs once considered the exclusive domain of men. The average person is exposed to women lawyers on a more regular basis because of television and movies. While it's not realistic, it is still exposure, and watching women be competent, aggressive, successful and **not being challenged because of their gender** has made a significant impact. Saying that it's not possible because it's just entertainment dismisses the real impact television and movies has on us as a society. I wonder how much attitudes would change if we saw more women contractors, mechanics and IT experts, and not have their gender be a plot point or even something noticed or questioned. How many times have we seen someone do a double-take or have a dubious expression on their face when discovering the grease monkey working on their car is a woman? That's my theory, anyway.
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Would be nice to be able to read the emails to see what the differences are.
but why? it clearly states that he was mistakenly using her signature without realizing it, which is what prompted the experiment, so the style and tone of his emails would have been the same regardless of whether he used her sig without knowing, his own sig, or her sig purposefully. the point was, clients treated him noticbly different based on the sig alone. same for her. the treatment only changed when she was using his name regardless of content.
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At my husband's job, he volunteers for kids' days, when children of employees come in and work on coding and other STEM things. He has noted how the boys are very aggressive to be on the computers (there aren't enough for all the kids at once), and the girls are very shy and have to be drawn out -- first to even sit down at the computers, and then to feel confident about what they are doing. They are much less confident and assertive than the boys, at least until they get some encouragement from the adults. We assume this is not the fault of the girls -- but of the conditioning they have had to be less interested in STEM. Studies have shown that teachers, usually subconsciously, treat girls differently than boys when teaching these subjects in ways that give girls the impression that they aren't good at it. I am also aware of the studies showing that females tend to be less interested in STEM by nature--but that's too weighty of a topic to go into and I've never looked into it myself! (My personal thought is -- is this because of conditioning? But I would assume the studies would account for that.)
We all take it in stride. Now add the challenge of being over 50 to being female, and we once again must do twice as much to be remotely considered 1/2 as good as the men.
I thedays I worked as a student nurse in a hospital, we had a requirement to attend a birth. As non essential staff we had to get the parents permission to be there. The guy in our class struggled to get anyone to allow him in. It wasn't to the year after we had all completed that requirement that someone let him in. A male doctor, great to have in the room, a male specialist .... great to have in the room. A male nurse, not going to let that pervert in almost seemed to be most folks take on things, not that they said that.... I think when you take up an occupation that is generally thought of as the other genders role you do so because you feel a strong calling to do so and so are often some of the best in the occupation. I'm not saying the very best but in that top group. I worked in an office, a man phoned for advice. I told him the law on the issue, he would not believe me. He asked for my boss. She said the same thing. He asked for her boss who he believed at "hl
I'm a web designer and I've always had model clients and respect.
Being a female engineer, I experienced many fomrms of sexism. My coleagues normaly belive if i have a successful project and if a client is satisfied with my design, it is only because the client or someone from his/her company has crush on me! It is like no one ever have seen an avarage looking woman around before
If you are women and OLD, than is really horrible! Young woman also will not accept you
I work in Bulgaria where this is not and issue. I did not have problem with it till one day an older colleague came. He was yelling and offending me, with no reason, though one day it slipped from him that I am not wordy to tell him how to do his work, because I am a younger woman, though I work 4 years that job and it was his 3-th week. After a few months with attitude like that one day I went to my boss and told her everything. She was like "I am surprised, I will talked with him" I think she did. Now he is not talking to me, but with every chance on office gatherings he is telling jokes that mystify the women and especially the younger one like not worthy for nothing except for stupid sex dolls.
At work, I have put in a strong effort to be assertive 1. I create deadlines and ask for things to be done without apologies. 2. I don't say "I think", instead I say "we should", "I would advise ..", "The research suggests" 3. I share my ideas with confidence and I point out problems and concerns. 4. I avoid gossip sessions and discussions about weight or dieting Guess what? I get more done. I'm happier. I find men listen to me. Women listen to me too, but some are really put off. One actually said "you work like a man"
that's f'd up and sad-women are brilliant, smart and on it. god :(
Not dismissing this story - cause sexism is alive and well, but before you drown in your own right indignation, keep in mind that men experience just as much sexism just in different way. Let me give you a few examples and tell me I'm wrong: - Have you tried to be a male gynecologist - half of your clients, won't even make an appointment with you if their insurance doesn't force them. - How about being a straight male in a fashion industry, or cosmetics, or a magazine, or a model? - Have you tried being a stay at home dad? How about trying to give advice to a group of moms? Snickering behind your back? - Suck it up, you are a man. Right. My hand breaks just as easily as next woman over. - "Honey bring up the suitcases." All 6 of them. What happened to equality? - "Your boyfriend is making less money than you girl. Dump him" - Porn industry - yeah. Hold you snickering. Male porn artists, are abused as much, but often get paid 2-10 times less than actresses.
Where do you see us drowning in our indignation neglecting sexism against men? You can stand up against it as well. But I doubt that sexism against men is as much as the one against women. And to be honest your examples have one thing in common: men working/beeing in so-called female sections. Society at its best, I think. :-( I don't want to neglect it, but there is a pattern. Big picture, like Stille20 said - But I agree, there is a lot to be done! (But I do not agree with your gynecologist example, which does not fit in: I don't care about the sex of a doctor, sympathy and knowledge works for me)
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Hey all. I started to work in a new company and it is kind of men club. The sales managers we have arre rude to me and sometimes are really arogant. I am happy that my boss is supportive and give me a helping hand other weise it would be a hell for me. The sexism does exist. I feel sad about it, and I hope it will change in 20 years and my friends children will exoerience it less then I do. Thank you for sharing this experiment. I am sure it will help us to me more kind to each other.
And lets not forget that Martin was getting paid more while having an easier time with clients.
Yes, but he has more experience as was stated in his posts. He is probably her supervisor or something. Not trying to deny the gender pay gap at all. It definitely exists and is obviously wrong.
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How the f**k you think it feels to Black in America then? Or a Black woman in America?
Don't believe one word of this f*****g story. Its all b******t. No one stops being a d**k because of a signature block name change. How about next time you add proof before you post this complete nonsense.
I don't believe a word of this f*****g story. No communication would go unheard because of a signature. Show us proof. This is all b******t. And before you all start, I am a woman.
If you read the entire thing you would have seen he touched on that.
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Might be a bit off, but I know a lot of cases when men hide behid female nick-names to get better offers from on-line male sellers, like I'm selling something, and this lady wants to by it for her son, and she is so sweet and polite and everything, and I can't help being all noble and helphul, and give her a 20% discount. Then we meet and there's this guy saying something about how I promised that lady a 30% discount and all... An old trick in sales, really. A male salesperson would approach a female client and vice versa... We do treat people of the opposite sex differently, it's like nature... Too bad though that some people judge others' professional abilities by their sex.
Good to point this out, however sometimes women benefit from positive treatment as opposed to men. Like just try hitchhiking for instance.
Sexism doesn't exist for YOU then. This story shows it does. I haven't experienced sexism much either, so I know where you're coming from. Don't say it doesn't exist though, that tends to come off as an insult to those who are affected by it. It's like saying North Americans don't understand suffering (if we were to be compared to Africa)
Load More Replies... I work on boats and women driving as captain have some problems to find respect from the clients :( the worse is that i have already heard some women entering the boat when a woman is driving " maybe we should wait for the next one..."...so sad... and talking about my job I can tell that all women driving boats are more serious and professional than a lot of male captains...
My wife is a boat captain and has worked on the seas for 17 years. She's driven in every kind of evil the North Atlantic can throw at her and done it better than most could dream of and yet getting respect from so many of her male coworkers will simply never happen. It both breaks my heart and makes me mad as hell.
Load More Replies... I used to work as senior sales associate/technical support in big chain computer stores. All my coworkers were male, but support was done by me&one other guy since we had the technical knowledge. A client came in when I was the only one on the floor and my manager was in the backoffice doing paperwork. He asked to have a tech consult so I said I'd be happy to help him. He glanced at me and said that he'd rather talk to "one of the tech guys", so I replied that I'm the tech "guy" at this store and how can I help. He explained his minor issue with transferring files, but he also said how he felt like wasting time explaining it to me just to have to tell it again when I "get a guy on the floor" to help him. I tried to explain that there's no one else coming and how to fix the issue. He didn't believe me and pushed for manager. When I got my mg there he deliberately pretended to not know the fix and loudly asked for my help. I explained again and sexist client left happily without apology.
I am not the tech "guy" anywhere, just having somewhat deeper knowledge of IT than people around me. Yet men just simply push me off when it comes to computers. "Let me help you", "Let me do it for you" and I shouldn't be offended. So many times then I watch them struggly with something that I could have solved easily...
Load More Replies... What about the boss?? He/She sucks by not believing without checking. F#ck that!!
He was presented with proof AND refused to believe it, that's even worse.
Load More Replies... So why don't you guys just all use a "support@mycompany.com" email address and sign everything "Support Team"? I have always thought that removing names and addresses from job applications and resumes might give companies an upper hand in hiring because it would remove a great deal of unrecognized prejudices and would just let their work and experience speak for them. Of course, you still have the face to face interviews - but hopefully by then those doing the interviewing would be able to recognize their own prejudices and could make a real effort not to allow those prejudices keep their company from hiring the best person for the job. We can dream, can't we?
Agreed. Or sign it with your initials, or first initial and last name.
Load More Replies... Try being deaf. Immediately you get judged for whether you're intelligent enough or not. Most people would assume our IQ is below average...
I'm with you! I'm hard of hearing! I can commendate with others.
Load More Replies... I'm a retired female cop and was actually asked, "Do you carry a gun like the MEN?", all the time.
Sounds familiar... I'm a female skydiving instructor w/close to 2.5k jumps. Once, when walking back to the van with parachutes over our shoulder I was the last one . Older guy in the public: Did YOU just jump out of an airplane too????? LOL Also a female skydiving instructor does not always go over well with guys, especially military groups. Mostly it's OK though, and some female students go like 'Well, if she can do it, maybe I can too' :-)
Load More Replies... I'm a medical student and whenever I tell people I'm applying to General Surgery for residency, I'm always asked how I'll balance work and children. Do they ever ask my male classmates this? Of course not....
I used to work at a hardware store and would occasionally get dismissed by customers because of my sex. The worst offenders? Elderly women and professionally dressed men in their 30's. The most open minded? Blue collar men. Contractors could recognize knowledge very quickly but those with no hands on experience wanted a man. I heard one lady ask a male co-worker the same question she asked of me 5 minutes previous. I chuckled when he gave her the same answer -she still wasn't happy.
I feel you Karen! It's ridiculous how similar my experiences are with yours. I work at an auto collision center. I do the estimating and some of the time, I would get questioned because of my gender. It used to bother me more when I was younger and inexperienced. However, I've learned to show those ppl the door quite quickly haha
Load More Replies... I've been an engineer for 27 years in the aerospace industry and in the consumer electronics industry. In my younger days, I was the 'cute' voice around the table. In my later days, I have influence but my voice is still a lone voice representing the female population in product designs. It's sad that products are often designed neglecting 50+% of the population.
So dumbasses are screwing themselves out of profit? smh
Load More Replies... At the age of 20 I landed a place at a high profile networking event at the Edinburgh Film Festival. The event was attended by representatives from all the leading media corporations...your TV household names. I practised my pitch all day, determined to make the best possible impression. I shouldn't have bothered. They were all young men in suits who literally smirked and winked at each other. They looked through me with condescending smiles while I tried to secure a work placement and then simply asked me out to dinner. It was my first experience of sexism in the workplace and it was heartbreaking.
I think it's interesting (irritatingly) that when I was in school, I felt pressure to be getting better grades than boys. I don't entirely know why that is, it just kinda felt like, that since I was a girl, I was expected to work harder. Yet, on the workforce, it appears that girls having worked harder than other boys doesn't seem to have made much difference...
I work in a technical support. We have such customers as well and also some male co-workers needed time to take my opinion serious
No women should be 'use to it' . Both men & women should be treated with the same respect
Yes, where is the portal to that utopia? We can say it over and over again, it's NOT how things are and it's NOT going to be how we change it, either. The moment Nicole would have complained, she would have been dismissed. A *MAN* told the boss and he didn't believe him, you think he's going to consider anything she has to say?
Load More Replies... This entire article is ironic in itself that this guy and other people would be "so shocked" by the results, when we women have been saying this for YEARS. But of course since we're women, nobody wanted to listen. But when a guy comes along and mentions it, suddenly everyone is all ears. Good grief.
F*****g sad that we women have to deal with that. I grew up with boys, so luckily I don't take s**t from anyone, ESPECIALLY men! Especially if they are my managers. My boss is a f*****g r****d, who thinks he knows everything. The amount of mansplaining he tries to do. After a few times, I started to shower him with sarcasm, till he got the point!
I'm working as a Community Manager and Costumer Servise for a mobile game company sinve January. For now, we've been pretty fair to each other, at least work-wise, I don't think I experienced any sexism from co-workers here yet. But as a CM and CS worker in a GAME company, I AM extra careful about the leak of my personal identity when communicating with our audience, and it's exactly for these sexist reasons. Even my male colleague had some slightly uncomfortable online situations with our players when his identity leaked, I can immagine if those perverts found out I were female, I'd end up deleting many comments and banning many users for "inappropriate behaviour".
I work at the architectural department of my town's town hall. I can't even remember how many times male architects tried to convince me that I didn't know my job...
I design and sell kitchens. The amount of fellas whose faces clearly read 'here we go, what does a bird know about Kitchens?' is ridiculous. Well the answer is a lot actually, but I have to enforce this every single time I speak to a male, even some female clients
Stereotypically speaking, if women don't know kitchen, men know more??
Load More Replies... Lori, While he may be a perceived 'hero', he did go out of his way to learn the truth and present his findings to the boss. Encouraging this type of positive support for women is the point of the 'He for She' campaign. Women can't do it alone. We need these types of supportive behaviors, and it is wrong of us to dismiss his efforts and his intentions. Positive reinforcement is needed in the social media.
Load More Replies... Presumably men who have gender neutral or names that are feminine would have these problems when communicating digitally with strangers? People named Kelly, Kim, Ashley, Shannon, Stacy etc
I've actually had this issue. At one of my jobs I had to chase a client around for weeks to get an approval for a design, I'm assuming because of my feminine sounding name.
Load More Replies... God just a few hours ago i was playing wow whit men since i'm the only female raider and these 2 guys who are not even core were telling me tacts on bosses and i was like yeah i know i'm core and you're not? Who do you think that you are talking to bEaatch!?
Shame it happens got a female best friend and shes great at pvp and league of legends but keeps her name neutral so she doesn't get given s**t by random people very annoying, good luck :D
Load More Replies... I work as a storeperson. People (men and women) who come in with a query will ignore me and talk to the nearest man or won't believe me until a man confirms what I'm saying (even though I have more experience than most of them). It's just something you get used to.
Can't change idiots you can only get use to them. Good luck
Load More Replies... My attending slept through all my presentations. At the end of the rotation he told me I should be happy to know I was an "average" student.
Same story for me pretty much. I was a mechanic and always got shite for taking too long. The guys never had to deal with what I did though. QA would take forever if I needed them, I couldn't get anything I needed fromnany of the males, and even if I completed more jobs quicker I was still considered the slow one. Men constantly hit on me and grabbed on me, and then turned ME in if i defended myself. It sucked so bad I changed careers.
From experience i trust women workers then men workers. Women are more efficient, more practical and don't complain as much as men. Workspaces should be filled with hard working women. Success is guaranteed.
you know that this kind of comment does not help woman or equality cause? As you can't say that men aren't superior to women in general, you can't say that women are more efficient. The whole point is to treat everyone equally whatever their gender.
Load More Replies... the fact that anyone finds this surprising in the least is sad. less pay, more difficult to do ones job, fewer opportunities, and then go home to job #2. can't win.
I work in a law firm where the majority of employees are women, it's about 70/30 or 55/45 if you count outside support staff (IT, accounting, etc.). The founding partner (a man) doesn't like hiring male legal assistants because he feels they don't work as hard as female legal assistant's, aren't as loyal, or respectful. While only one of the three partners is a woman, only 2 of the associates are men and the other 10 are women. In fact, we just hired another lawyer who is a woman. In my duties (kind of a jack of all trades, I do whatever is needed), I read a lot of the emails that go back and forth between our firm, our clients and whomever we're dealing with on behalf of our clients. While things can sometimes get heated with opposing counsel (we're dealing with people's livelihoods and reputations), I don't believe anyone has ever been disrespectful to any of the women in our firm because they're women.
I have a theory about women laywers being, on average, treated with more respect and acceptance than many women doing other jobs once considered the exclusive domain of men. The average person is exposed to women lawyers on a more regular basis because of television and movies. While it's not realistic, it is still exposure, and watching women be competent, aggressive, successful and **not being challenged because of their gender** has made a significant impact. Saying that it's not possible because it's just entertainment dismisses the real impact television and movies has on us as a society. I wonder how much attitudes would change if we saw more women contractors, mechanics and IT experts, and not have their gender be a plot point or even something noticed or questioned. How many times have we seen someone do a double-take or have a dubious expression on their face when discovering the grease monkey working on their car is a woman? That's my theory, anyway.
Load More Replies... Would be nice to be able to read the emails to see what the differences are.
but why? it clearly states that he was mistakenly using her signature without realizing it, which is what prompted the experiment, so the style and tone of his emails would have been the same regardless of whether he used her sig without knowing, his own sig, or her sig purposefully. the point was, clients treated him noticbly different based on the sig alone. same for her. the treatment only changed when she was using his name regardless of content.
Load More Replies... At my husband's job, he volunteers for kids' days, when children of employees come in and work on coding and other STEM things. He has noted how the boys are very aggressive to be on the computers (there aren't enough for all the kids at once), and the girls are very shy and have to be drawn out -- first to even sit down at the computers, and then to feel confident about what they are doing. They are much less confident and assertive than the boys, at least until they get some encouragement from the adults. We assume this is not the fault of the girls -- but of the conditioning they have had to be less interested in STEM. Studies have shown that teachers, usually subconsciously, treat girls differently than boys when teaching these subjects in ways that give girls the impression that they aren't good at it. I am also aware of the studies showing that females tend to be less interested in STEM by nature--but that's too weighty of a topic to go into and I've never looked into it myself! (My personal thought is -- is this because of conditioning? But I would assume the studies would account for that.)
We all take it in stride. Now add the challenge of being over 50 to being female, and we once again must do twice as much to be remotely considered 1/2 as good as the men.
I thedays I worked as a student nurse in a hospital, we had a requirement to attend a birth. As non essential staff we had to get the parents permission to be there. The guy in our class struggled to get anyone to allow him in. It wasn't to the year after we had all completed that requirement that someone let him in. A male doctor, great to have in the room, a male specialist .... great to have in the room. A male nurse, not going to let that pervert in almost seemed to be most folks take on things, not that they said that.... I think when you take up an occupation that is generally thought of as the other genders role you do so because you feel a strong calling to do so and so are often some of the best in the occupation. I'm not saying the very best but in that top group. I worked in an office, a man phoned for advice. I told him the law on the issue, he would not believe me. He asked for my boss. She said the same thing. He asked for her boss who he believed at "hl
I'm a web designer and I've always had model clients and respect.
Being a female engineer, I experienced many fomrms of sexism. My coleagues normaly belive if i have a successful project and if a client is satisfied with my design, it is only because the client or someone from his/her company has crush on me! It is like no one ever have seen an avarage looking woman around before
If you are women and OLD, than is really horrible! Young woman also will not accept you
I work in Bulgaria where this is not and issue. I did not have problem with it till one day an older colleague came. He was yelling and offending me, with no reason, though one day it slipped from him that I am not wordy to tell him how to do his work, because I am a younger woman, though I work 4 years that job and it was his 3-th week. After a few months with attitude like that one day I went to my boss and told her everything. She was like "I am surprised, I will talked with him" I think she did. Now he is not talking to me, but with every chance on office gatherings he is telling jokes that mystify the women and especially the younger one like not worthy for nothing except for stupid sex dolls.
At work, I have put in a strong effort to be assertive 1. I create deadlines and ask for things to be done without apologies. 2. I don't say "I think", instead I say "we should", "I would advise ..", "The research suggests" 3. I share my ideas with confidence and I point out problems and concerns. 4. I avoid gossip sessions and discussions about weight or dieting Guess what? I get more done. I'm happier. I find men listen to me. Women listen to me too, but some are really put off. One actually said "you work like a man"
that's f'd up and sad-women are brilliant, smart and on it. god :(
Not dismissing this story - cause sexism is alive and well, but before you drown in your own right indignation, keep in mind that men experience just as much sexism just in different way. Let me give you a few examples and tell me I'm wrong: - Have you tried to be a male gynecologist - half of your clients, won't even make an appointment with you if their insurance doesn't force them. - How about being a straight male in a fashion industry, or cosmetics, or a magazine, or a model? - Have you tried being a stay at home dad? How about trying to give advice to a group of moms? Snickering behind your back? - Suck it up, you are a man. Right. My hand breaks just as easily as next woman over. - "Honey bring up the suitcases." All 6 of them. What happened to equality? - "Your boyfriend is making less money than you girl. Dump him" - Porn industry - yeah. Hold you snickering. Male porn artists, are abused as much, but often get paid 2-10 times less than actresses.
Where do you see us drowning in our indignation neglecting sexism against men? You can stand up against it as well. But I doubt that sexism against men is as much as the one against women. And to be honest your examples have one thing in common: men working/beeing in so-called female sections. Society at its best, I think. :-( I don't want to neglect it, but there is a pattern. Big picture, like Stille20 said - But I agree, there is a lot to be done! (But I do not agree with your gynecologist example, which does not fit in: I don't care about the sex of a doctor, sympathy and knowledge works for me)
Load More Replies... Hey all. I started to work in a new company and it is kind of men club. The sales managers we have arre rude to me and sometimes are really arogant. I am happy that my boss is supportive and give me a helping hand other weise it would be a hell for me. The sexism does exist. I feel sad about it, and I hope it will change in 20 years and my friends children will exoerience it less then I do. Thank you for sharing this experiment. I am sure it will help us to me more kind to each other.
And lets not forget that Martin was getting paid more while having an easier time with clients.
Yes, but he has more experience as was stated in his posts. He is probably her supervisor or something. Not trying to deny the gender pay gap at all. It definitely exists and is obviously wrong.
Load More Replies... How the f**k you think it feels to Black in America then? Or a Black woman in America?
Don't believe one word of this f*****g story. Its all b******t. No one stops being a d**k because of a signature block name change. How about next time you add proof before you post this complete nonsense.
I don't believe a word of this f*****g story. No communication would go unheard because of a signature. Show us proof. This is all b******t. And before you all start, I am a woman.
If you read the entire thing you would have seen he touched on that.
Load More Replies... Might be a bit off, but I know a lot of cases when men hide behid female nick-names to get better offers from on-line male sellers, like I'm selling something, and this lady wants to by it for her son, and she is so sweet and polite and everything, and I can't help being all noble and helphul, and give her a 20% discount. Then we meet and there's this guy saying something about how I promised that lady a 30% discount and all... An old trick in sales, really. A male salesperson would approach a female client and vice versa... We do treat people of the opposite sex differently, it's like nature... Too bad though that some people judge others' professional abilities by their sex.
Good to point this out, however sometimes women benefit from positive treatment as opposed to men. Like just try hitchhiking for instance.
Sexism doesn't exist for YOU then. This story shows it does. I haven't experienced sexism much either, so I know where you're coming from. Don't say it doesn't exist though, that tends to come off as an insult to those who are affected by it. It's like saying North Americans don't understand suffering (if we were to be compared to Africa)
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