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?

'the man replied 'well, you probably had lipstick and a mirror in the other hand and weren't concentrating' '

And I bet he thought he was utterly hilarious. Witty and original - what a fabulous combination

re the lipstick,

I remember there being a car insurance/injury advert on the back of a bus in Reading only a year or two ago which had a half shot of a womans hand holding up a lipstick to the cars interior mirror, cant remember what the 'male' version was.

Sometimes I think my own sex holds back the tide of equality as much as anything

yes that's true and you shouldn't be surprised.
In any culture siding with the dominant group is likely to be a successful strategy for any given individual.
That means that in a patriarchy for many women the most rational strategy (especially in the short term) is to condone and go along with the patriarchal system

I'm never quite sure about the status of academia - are we classed as public sector, because that would mean we are covered by the Equality Act and have a legal basis for complaining.

All of us senior women are funded by the research arm of the NHS and we calculated that the 10 grants that we have between the 6 of us amount to more than £5 million. Between us we employ 15 people of varying levels of experience from a post-doc with 10 years experience to a very young administrator straight from University.

I had a chat with my HoD today. I got the feeling that he had gotten wind of our objections and was a bit scared that he would be losing this prestigious funding source (which basically makes the dept look more important than it really is). Interestingly, none of the men have this source of funding - and so can't tap into the support that comes with it .

Anyway, the upshot (before I completely out myself!) is that not much has changed, but he is a bit freaked and muttered lots of things about new office space, getting involved in the bid to become a specialist school within the medical school, sitting on various committees.....all the things that the boys normally only get to play with.

My DH thinks that we really have got him scared, but that it's really only because he's terrified that without our funding, they are less likely to be successful in the bid......and as my DH has known this man throughout his career and, until last month when he retired was a high profile academic himself......I believe him.....

Oh, don't know what to do!!!!!!