To think that misogyny is alive and well in 2014

[zeezeek]

Ok, back at work in the UK, and my very experienced female colleague has missed out on a Chair to a male, less experienced colleague. The departmental money has gone to the usual old boys and I'm stuck with an office share with another female colleague whilst men who are not as senior as me are given their own offices. And, you know the worst thing, none of this even occurred to me as being wrong until someone (a female friend) pointed it out. WTF?

From what you say, that sounds like a great idea zeezeek. If it happens, let the knobhead collective know why!

I've gotten lucky. I haven't really got sexism in the workplace. But I'm also in a field where there are actually quite a few women.

I work freelance from home atm. The only one that gets to dictate my position and pay rate is me.

traininthedistance, I'm sure you know this already, but I think that this has something to do with the 'postdoc squeeze', at least in the humanities. My DH has just gone through 2 years of unemployment mixed with bouts of fixed-term teaching before getting a 3-year postdoc. In our field it's common to spend 3 years or more on a series of fixed term contracts (e.g. covering research leave) after finishing the doctorate. These contracts are generally too short to provide maternity leave. I'm doing my PhD right now and it has struck me forcibly that my funding contract could be my last for some time that has maternity leave written into it. I came across an article that stated that the least 'damaging' time in a female academic's career to have a child is aged 40. I love my subject, but I also don't want to put off having children just for my career - it's a heck of a bind!

Basically, academia simply hasn't responded (yet...?) to the structural problems holding women back.

There seems to be a conflation of misogyny and sexism.
Misogyny is hatred of women, sexism is discrimination on the basis of gender.
Whilst the two things overlap they are not directly analogous.

Both are alive and well IMO:(

Misogyny isn't just alive, it's thriving. I hope you decide to go freelance and have a bloody successful career from it zeezeek..

I watched this documentary at the weekend; it's incredibly eye- opening and I really recommend it.

I do not work in an professional environment but I do know sexism/misogyny still very much exists today for all women. I think men have also stolen the word feminism and made it something to be shameful off "Oh you think your a feminist then!"
"No of course not! I am just saying..."

I see this all the time. There was an bbc program recently called blurred lines which really hit home how really 'far' we have come.

YANBU

BUT I do think there is an overuse of the term misogyny to situations where it doesn't apply and that somehow lessons the real problems that ARE patriarchal e.g that stated in the OP

GatoradeMeBitch and TheCunkOfPhilomena - thank you. We're still discussing it and looking at whether it will be viable but, still very keen.

I do apologise for getting mixed up between sexism and misogyny, but actually there are a lot of men in my department who do seem to hate women.

Fuck me zeezeek. Go to town on your employers? You say more money bringing in grants, are you an academic? (haven't read whole thread).

Public sector... they should be fucking quaking and you should in no uncertain terms, call them on it.

That should have said 'go to town on your employers!!! '

I love that Birds of a Feather passed the test. How unexpected.

I read this article about the Bechdel test today. It has some very good points actually io9.com/why-the-bechdel-test-is-more-important-than-you-realize-1586135613/+Jessica

YANBU. What was it I read yesterday - something to do with men's razors not being taxed as 'essential' products but sanpro still gets taxed. Can't remember the exact details but it just rammed home the fact that the undercurrent of sexism runs deep in this country.

It is exactly the same where I am, right down to having the grant income etc. I also made the mistake of marrying a more senior academic (now separated) so I know exactly the mindset. It about killed me having it at work and at home. Not sure what the solution is, really, unless you are able to leave.
The description about Athena Swan being good on paper whilst the boys club continues is so true. In the name of equality, our Athena Swan labelled mentoring scheme makes provision for male-male mentoring and men only meetings.

Good point in distinguishing between sexism/misogyny.

My work is extremely sexist and I am routinely discriminated against because I have kids/have been pregnant/can't work the same hours. I see this as indirect sex discrimination. The women without kids can do very well - or as well as their married male counterparts, in some cases. What a choice...

Misogyny is truly alive and well and I think getting worse. I don't see much at my work - but read it every days in the paper or Internet. I see much of the rise of extreme religious issues as the most glaring example of misogyny.

It often feels as if the 'knee jerk' impulse of men is to dominate and control women and we are continually having to deal with it.

Much as we all need to control our impulses, for violence, revenge, greed etc in order to be civilized.

You might want to 'listen again" to today's Woman's Hour which was looking at misogyny .....

Yanbu! I had a particularly nasty encounter with it early on in my academic career. Long story short, I was pretty much stalked and harassed by a male student, to the point at which other female colleagues told me to file this as a harassment complaint. What happened? The student got there first and filed a complaint against me! Ok...I thought, I have tons of barking mad emails from this guy, so I will come out fine and the department will stick up for me. Hahaha!

The male bosses first brushed it off -"oh! A bit of a bother! It's not really harassment it is?" Another make colleague went on to point out in meeting "but this student is fine in all my classes, he is such a lovely guy'"

I was explicitly told not to pursue this (even though I was genuinely scared of the student; I had a female colleague sit in on the classes just to feel safer!) but they gave this guy the benefit of the doubt and I was trashed in front of some complaints tribunal held by the Registrar. I wasn't allowed to sit in but a colleague told me that the complaint boiled down to 'she's young and female, which makes her incompetent' and some deranged rant.

My point is, the genuinely aggressive male student had his made up complaints legitimised, whilst the young female lecturer was brushed aside as over reacting.

There are more incidents but this is the one that really sticks out, where I think that the bosses would have reacted differently if I was a man. And the student wouldn't have dared pull that stunt with a male lecturer.

The problem with academia is that male academics' self-perception is of themselves as very right-on, so any complaints will be smacked down energetically because you can't be allowed to disturb their self-image as good guys. IME the culture is 'sexism exists, yes of course it does, but not here!'

I was in the gym a couple of days ago and a man and woman sat in the sauna chatting, she is a chef and was complaining about the occupational hazard of burns on her arms. My ex was a chef and his arms were the same. the man replied 'well, you probably had lipstick and a mirror in the other hand and weren't concentrating' I died a bit inside.

Obviously this is a general statement and their are in some employers some pretty bad sexism etc but I thought someone did a study that showed guys are more likely to 'big themselves up' more than most women would, where as women work hoping that hard work and diligence will get them promoted.

I work in a scientific research company, though i would say we are quite progressive as we have had a female chief executive for years.

I'm hoping she was able to respond with a suitable put down?

BreakingDad - yes, it's true, so for a while people were going around saying 'Well all women need to do is to big themselves up as much as men do! It's their own fault really, for not putting themselves forward as much.'

Unfortunately it's been shown more recently that there's a very good reason why women don't, which is that women's careers are often harmed by their being more assertive, because men doing it is perceived differently to women doing it. So a woman asking for a raise may be lucky and get it, but she might also damage her standing at work by being perceived as arrogant and pushy.

YANBU but looking at the thread where women expect men to offer to pay for meals on dates, maybe the men need all the extra money.

Sexism is alive and well. Sometimes I think my own sex holds back the tide of equality as much as anything

A female colleague (new ish) asked me, after I made a comment about something Nigel Farage had said about maternity pay, 'so, are you, like, a feminist?!' in a tone of voice that made it clear being a feminist wasn't A Good Thing. I just said 'in the sense that I believe women and men should have equal rights, yes. Are you not?'

The #everydaysexism is everywhere. I can only imagine how bad it must be academia or certain professions. I'm aware that I have chosen an industry that is dominated by women and a family friendly culture, because I just don't have it in me to fight through an old boys club to get where I want to be. The downside is that the industry pays peanuts.