Introduction:
Hello, and welcome in “Let’s take up more space”
Today, we will see together what women face in business that men just don't.
On paper, things have never looked better for women in business. Nevertheless, women are struggling to survive in the business environment given challenges they face. They continue to face unequal pay, sexism, and gender barriers in the workplace. They try to find professional mentors while achieving work/life balance. Overcoming these obstacles can seems daunting, especially in technical and chief executive roles where the representation of women is far lower than men.
How women can succeed in a world built without them?
To shed light on some of these disparities, I planned an interview with Oihana Coustié. She is a computer engineer in a large aviation company. Thanks to her work experience and her commitment for Woman’s rights, she will try to answer these questions.
Questions:
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Do you think business is a man’s world hostile to women?
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. It also has been proven that the temperature of the air conditioning in companies was calculated according to men’s metabolism which is too cold for women. In the end women are denied basic comfort needs, but they are also likely to hear sexist jokes, to be unwillingly sexualised and even to be sexually harassed at work. All of these elements contribute to the feeling that women do not belong.
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Around you, did you see male leaders who recognize the value of creating a culture of achievement for all?
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For what I see, most male leaders are proud to promote genderblind management, which means evaluating people based on their capacities and not gender. There’s a more profound alternative to establish quotas of men and women but it’s clearly unpopular, because it’s seen as positive discrimination. Actually, it’s not women who are positively discriminated by quotas, it’s men who have always been positively discriminated by the patriarchal society.
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In your opinion what can businesses do? Do you know initiatives put in place to lower sexism in business?
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I have witnessed an initiative to set a safe environment where employees can speak up, especially about sexism. We had a team meeting with an HR but in the end, we mainly heard men talking about how they fear to be perceived as sexist, and I guess it wasn’t the point. Of course, it is important to open the dialogue around discrimination, but I personally think quotas are the actual way through assuming that we stop perceiving it as positive discrimination
Conclusion:
As solution, there are many different ways that businesses can reduce hostility towards women in the workplace. They can ensure that women are part of management teams and push for women to be included at all levels of decision making.
But they also can try to roll out events to stamp out sexism.
Indeed, there are already a large number of feminist events year-round. However, most are unfolded either as a conference or as a demonstration for equal rights. Hence events are attended only by people already aware of the cause, surrendering of their own accord. Yet, it is often people who are not sensitized who are at the root of sexism.
Therefore, I think it’s essential to create events for all these employees to sensitize them. This could be possible by creating feminist seminar or by making conference compulsory. The goal is to eradicate all forms of sexism at the administrative and relational level.
In my opinion, it would be wiser to introduce feminism into all events. This way, this would enable feminism to enter manners.
Because feminism isn’t a choice, women need to assert themselves, women need to take up more space.
