But how did OP see it helping her, even if no one complained? I was talking about this thread earlier with female friends and only 1 of 4 said that they wouldn’t have minded listening.
OP recognised that this issue, like most important things in life, was not all about her.
The discussion was about women's experiences working in this industry. The subject was this industry and how it is for women to work within. The only meaningful purpose of such a discussion is for the people running it to gather the results, reflect and consider whether useful changes could be made.
As I said here yesterday, the particular issue raised by OP's experience is the wide-ranging individual discretion granted to managers at that time. In this case the use of that discretion to discriminate against a woman. So the pertinent questions arising are:
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Do managers still have wide-ranging individual discretion over matters affecting their staff's employment, attainment and progression opportunities?
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Do managers have the knowledge and skills necessary to use that discretion appropriately? Is there a training need? Are managers passing things on to HR when they should?
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More broadly, Is there a need to review the scope of individual managerial discretion, discover the true current position (on the sorts of decisions managers can take and what their impacts could be, rather than a review of individual cases), which might not match what senior managers imagine it to be, if policies are not watertight or if there's a power imbalance between some managers and HR colleagues. Are some managers still winging it?
These are the sorts of mismatches between policies on paper and in practice that allow institutional discrimination to flourish.
These are the sorts of mismatches between policies on paper and in practice that create invidious individual instances that result in employers being sued and suffering reputational damage.
These are the sorts of reasons that I imagine inspired OP to share her past experience of workplace discrimination; certainly the sorts of reasons why I would feel I was doing my employer a favour by sharing such an example. Especially so if I worked in a male-dominated industry and for a company which I suspected was not completely up to date with best practice in every facet of its operation (and/or one that wanted to be able present itself as a beacon of best practice).
The sort of business that might recognise the need for a discussion of women's experiences in that industry, on international women's day.
I would say that OP recognised very clearly the context of the discussion she was taking part in. Her only mistake might have been to misread the sincerity of her employer's intent.
Were I her, that is what I would be feeding back to her manager. Along with a suggestion that such exercises need to be much better planned and managed next time.
Otherwise they risk becoming part of the sort of leaky and inept structure permitting institutional discrimination, that I described above.