Feminist warhorses: pull up a sandbag and tell your stories

I failed to have a creche introduced at my institute of higher education. The reasoning was 'there are no mothers here'.

On a more positive note, I now work in a managerial capacity so am able to bring in or inform policies that help women wrt menopause, flexible working, etc. I also encourage women who've had and raised children to apply for jobs, and make it clear that I dont' consider that a 'gap' on a CV but a positive addition.

If that was true, ooh I wonder why that might've been the case?!

And we all know it's only female parents that need childcare. Male ones seem to have that all magically sorted.

100% true, Prelate. I had a friend at the time who was a mother and had wanted to go to higher ed, but couldn't. It was her situation that prompted me to raise the issue.

I started a new job in the mid 90s for a large insurance co in central London. Working in IT, as an analyst, at their Head Office of about 300 people. I turned up in a trouser suit on day 4, and was pulled aside by my (male) line manager, to tell me women weren’t allowed to wear trousers. Shocked doesn’t begin to cover it, I had an hour and a half commute from the Home Counties, made up of a bus, the tube and a train, in January, and it was bloody freezing. Trousers and ankle boots made it doable.
I looked up the policy in the employee hand book, and went about petitioning for it to be changed, using language my previous employees had used re.womens dress code. It took 2 Yrs, but they finally changed it (just as I was leaving). It’s a small thing in the scheme of all things feminism, but I was pleased and relieved at the time.

Mid 1990. First pregnancy working for major global healthcare company. They had all sorts of stuff about encouraging equal working. But I was told clearly that they could not and would not offer part time working
But then 4 of their most senior women ( hey we weren’t that senior but the most senior women) all got pregnant and went on maternity at same time.
we formed a group. All through maternity leave we fought the company. We set up 2 job share proposals between us, fought HR including meetings in our front rooms with babies with them. Eventually they agreed in principle. My ex manager shocked me by offering me the job share - he was a very blokey man , but I knew he was very family oriented. On the day he offered he said his wife had to give up work when she had their first baby as her company refused to accommodate her..he said to me “not on my watch”
we all returned part time and showed that we could not only make it work but the advantages. 3 years later they introduced the first flexible working policy in the global company. By 7 years it was a world wide practice, by 6 years they won a uk HR award as best place for women to work.
It was incredibly stressful at the time- being on maternity leave with no idea if I would be able to return to work…but I feel us 4 pathed the way for hundreds of women since in that global company.
when I was retiring, I told a young mum about it, and who was the first boss who agreed…she couldn’t believe it was this guy who by then as extremely senior and had kept his reputation as a bit macho…but he was an under cover feminist really ! It does take men like him to be allies to make progress happen in these situations

Ah. Brave women and fair men.

I reported sexual harassment at work while pregnant in the face of half my dept taking his side (because he is a man and it's just bants) and the other half "staying out of it". I developed ptsd, anxiety and depression as a result partly because i was pregnant and went into labour 10 weeks early. The doctors told me my premature labour was very probably due to the stress he caused overloading my body with adrenaline & all within the same week) but as a result of me pushing a complaint through and not shutting up, new policies were brought in around mental health and sexual harassment and the management were forced to confront the rapey, sexist toxic culture in my department. (couldn't leave due to nobody hiring part time workers and couldn't afford childcare - such is the patriarchy) Sadly the evil fuckers still work there but everyone knows what they did and I've moved on to bigger and better things. This was within the last 2 years.