I could kick myself
Warning: rant follows.
[ENGAGE RANT MODE]
I really could kick myself.
I am here to be kicked, and I have the boots for it.
Why? Well, I'm one of the lucky ones: I am privileged to work the sort of warm-hearted, liberal, accepting, diverse organisation whose values chime with my own. Or so I thought.
But today, I had an epiphany.
I'm a warm-hearted, liberal sort of person myself. I like working in a mixed-ability, mixed-ethnicity, mixed-gender, mixed-sexual-preference, mixed-culture sort of place. It's fun! I adore the fact that, while there are always more areas of agreement than disagreement, there are always delightful areas of difference that just make life *interesting*.
However, in any workplace it's important to understand that there are unconscious biasses - the sort of immediate decisions that people take about others based on instantly recognisable difference. And today I was forcefully reminded that no-one, however liberal or enlightened they might think they are, is immune from such things.
Not even me.
A seemingly-innocuous sign lurks upon the dishwasher in the office kitchen whenever it is in use. It plaintively states:
"Please clean up after yourself. Your mother is not here, and neither is your nanny!"
It has been used for years. Years! Not months, no, years!
As I, being a well-behaved sort of person, reached for the drying-up-cloth, I was suddenly struck by a sense of revelation.
When did it become ok to assume that it was *not* all right for anyone to clean up your shit, except for your *mother*?
What about your father? Or your brother? Or, given that all the people who work in my office are, presumably, adults, your self?
Fuck! Once a woman has given birth, the entire world, including the woman herself, assume that it is OK for her to become transformed into a domestic drudge and, hereto, spend her entire time devoted to the cause of cleaning up other peoples' shit. If this is not a case of unconscious bloody sexism in the office, I don't know what is!
And I have been complicit in this shit.
THIS HAS GOT TO STOP!
No wonder less than 4% of CEO jobs in corporate America are taken by females. Once they've exercised their wombs, and spawned, they have become domestic slaves. They're just too plain busy to even think about doing anysoddingthing else.
[DISENGAGE RANT MODE]
Rant over. Thank you for listening.
(I am totally going to deface that fucking notice tomorrow at work. Suggestions welcome.)
[ENGAGE RANT MODE]
I really could kick myself.
I am here to be kicked, and I have the boots for it.
Why? Well, I'm one of the lucky ones: I am privileged to work the sort of warm-hearted, liberal, accepting, diverse organisation whose values chime with my own. Or so I thought.
But today, I had an epiphany.
I'm a warm-hearted, liberal sort of person myself. I like working in a mixed-ability, mixed-ethnicity, mixed-gender, mixed-sexual-preference, mixed-culture sort of place. It's fun! I adore the fact that, while there are always more areas of agreement than disagreement, there are always delightful areas of difference that just make life *interesting*.
However, in any workplace it's important to understand that there are unconscious biasses - the sort of immediate decisions that people take about others based on instantly recognisable difference. And today I was forcefully reminded that no-one, however liberal or enlightened they might think they are, is immune from such things.
Not even me.
A seemingly-innocuous sign lurks upon the dishwasher in the office kitchen whenever it is in use. It plaintively states:
"Please clean up after yourself. Your mother is not here, and neither is your nanny!"
It has been used for years. Years! Not months, no, years!
As I, being a well-behaved sort of person, reached for the drying-up-cloth, I was suddenly struck by a sense of revelation.
When did it become ok to assume that it was *not* all right for anyone to clean up your shit, except for your *mother*?
What about your father? Or your brother? Or, given that all the people who work in my office are, presumably, adults, your self?
Fuck! Once a woman has given birth, the entire world, including the woman herself, assume that it is OK for her to become transformed into a domestic drudge and, hereto, spend her entire time devoted to the cause of cleaning up other peoples' shit. If this is not a case of unconscious bloody sexism in the office, I don't know what is!
And I have been complicit in this shit.
THIS HAS GOT TO STOP!
No wonder less than 4% of CEO jobs in corporate America are taken by females. Once they've exercised their wombs, and spawned, they have become domestic slaves. They're just too plain busy to even think about doing anysoddingthing else.
[DISENGAGE RANT MODE]
Rant over. Thank you for listening.
(I am totally going to deface that fucking notice tomorrow at work. Suggestions welcome.)