"Girls" being particularly welcome to join work's football team

[Piddlepuddle]

Hi

I have just been sent an exceedingly patronising email from one of the men at work about their 5 a side football tournament. "Girls" are particularly welcome apparently, because you get a goal for every girl on your team, and you can't enter a team without a girl in it.

We are supposed to be one of the big 4 accountancy firms, all clued up on diversity and equality!

I am going to send an email to the office leader saying just how patronising this all is. But any input into just how rubbish this is would be very welcome.

Or am I overreacting?

Im thinking all the women should form their own teams with no men jn and automatically be 5 goals up!

You arent over reacting btw. Its ridiculous that that is even happening in this day and age!

I once had something similar: I emailed back to ask if it was only the daughters of staff members who could enter this team, or coukd the girls bring schoolfriends, and which juvenile age categories were eligible.

They did apologise.

Has he blind copied everyone else, or can you reply to all?

If you can reply to all, I would do so as Stella suggests to embarrass him "Thanks for your email. Really interested to hear girls are encouraged to join. DD (or insert appropriate female friend or relative) would really like to join but you don't say how old the girls' category goes up to. Could you let me know? Also, is it limited to daughters of staff members, or can it be anyone?"

And the women and boys will be welcome to watch from the sidelines or will they have a separate competition?

It's so weird this whole "woman" bypass isn't it? When they were commentating on Wimbledon they used lady & girl but I didn't hear the word woman.

What's not to like about it?

Oh definitely , do it do it!

Can just daughters join or can women as well? So patronizing, not in the least that they are just looking fr token women to get their side legal to play.

I'mnotbloody - I heard of a school hockey team that was run along precisely those lines. The all-women team that signed up had several under-18 internationals and didn't really need the head start. I think they were regularly into double figure margins, even without the 5 goal handicap.

Argh, sexist men and amateur football though. I played football for years with my mates at university - but when one of the profs organised an 11-a-side match, he wouldn't let me play. (Worried I'd break a leg, aparently - one of those esprit d'escalier moments when I only came up with the comeback "but they're my legs to choose to put at risk or not" later). I was pretty gutted that even though several of my friends pointed out I was a better player than him, none of them would actually pull out of the match over it. Still karma bit him - he got carried off with a bust blood vessel in his leg, and was still limping weeks later.

Did you send him a get well card LLF? And remind him often of the dangers of such a sport!

Sorry for late reply. Thanks so much for the input. In the end I couldn't reply to all, but did forward on to the senior partner in our office and ask whether the email was directed at our daughters, or did the sender perhaps mean women. (Thanks for the idea). I have since had an apology so a good result. Thanks again.

result op!