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Original poster

wtf are work thinking?

86 replies

LadyRainicorn · 10/03/2015 08:11

I work for a financial services firm. It's usually run by a group of old white men but the current CEO elect (or whatever the title for the incoming leader the UK leadership board is) is a woman.

They produce a lot of reports. Coinciding with international woman's day, they did a report on women in business globally.

At the end of the report they made 12 recommendations on how to get more women into business. All well and good. Except 3 were for women. They were basically, act like men. Why? After a report saying that changing the old structures would be beneficial you just want people to mold themselves to perputuate it?!

And the final recommendation was to 'challenge discrimination in your workplace'.

Yes of course. Silly me. All these men discriminating against me because I forgot to ask them not to!

No fucking recognition of the work women put in to get any where in businessin the first place then. Or in some parts of the world, educated.

OP posts:
scallopsrgreat · 10/03/2015 09:36
Grin

If only! It should be that simple.

LadyRainicorn, was there anything about the barriers women faced and what the company was going to do about those?

Original poster
LadyRainicorn · 10/03/2015 09:36

A 'recognise your worth' would have been nice. Instead of you need to, yet again, do more.

OP posts:
ChunkyPickle · 10/03/2015 09:35

Alternative, I think you need to run for government. That kind of straight talking is exactly what's needed.

AlternativeTentacles · 10/03/2015 09:30

'How to get more women into business'
'Employ more women'

There, job done. No need for a report on women in business globally.

Fuckwits.

scallopsrgreat · 10/03/2015 09:27

"It just seemed to ignore why women felt the need to wait until they could prove they were the absolute best for the role instead of winging it." I think this is part of the issue. The report isn't getting to the root of the issue but also that they are expecting women to change their behaviours. As if it is their fault. There is nothing wrong with applying for positions when you are 100% qualified. The question should be why are they promoting men who are only 60% qualified for the positions?

It is also fairly well known that men are thought to have more potential because you know they're men.

Original poster
LadyRainicorn · 10/03/2015 09:13

Well yes. Quite.

OP posts:
ChunkyPickle · 10/03/2015 09:10

Where is their logic anyway? If women only apply if they think they are 100% qualified, and men 60%, and they know this, why aren't they leaping at the women and employing/promoting them?

Original poster
LadyRainicorn · 10/03/2015 08:32

Although I may have pointed out instances where challenging gender discrimination have gotten women fired on our work intranet.

OP posts:
Original poster
LadyRainicorn · 10/03/2015 08:28

Well, I'm annoyed, so it didn't say act like men outright.

There was something along the lines of 'step out of comfort zone and push for more challenging work' which sounds really innocuous but when you pair it with a page in the report that talks about men and women's behaviour at promotion - the CEO said 'in my experience women will only apply if they think they are 100% qualified whereas men will go for it if they are 60% qualified' but this then ignores another piece of research on the same page saying women were leaving business because if they did bother to apply they got rebuffed and rebuffed again.

It just seemed to ignore why women felt the need to wait until they could prove they were the absolute best for the role instead of winging it.

Possibly it was the report and the recommendations that have wound me .

OP posts:
ShatnersBassoon · 10/03/2015 08:15

What exactly does it suggest?

Needhelpwithadilemma · 10/03/2015 08:13

In what ways were they telling women to act more like men? What were they specifically advising women to do?