Great GC moment at work

[NCForThisIAmFeelingOptimistic]

NC-ed for this as work-related.

My company have just set up a world-wide #allears discussion board running for 48 hours enabling people to raise questions about various things. I asked the (external) website provider if I could raise an anonymous question (the website uses my company's name and email address linked to our internal profiles) regarding the conflation of sex and gender - as my company uses 'gender' to report on the pay gap etc. I've asked if both sex and gender identity could be recorded on all of their EDI questionnaries, to make sure we can analyse the results and develop evidence-based policies for bullying, discrimination and the pay gap for both. The woman who picked up my email is obviously GC, she mentioned 'no-platforming' in understanding why I needed to keep it anonymous, but also suggested a better worded sentence to enable me to ask a more contentious question! And ended the email with a smiley face.

This has really made my day. If you're out there and reading this - thanks :-)

Good work!

Well done!

Excellent, well done.

There are more of us than they think!

Fantastic. And yes, these questions need to be out there and acknowledged, not swept under the carpet and shouted down.

Nice one! :-)

Well done!

Well done

Awwww, that makes me so happy! (I’m weird and need a hobby other than GC politics and Mumsnet).

Good news! :)

Hurrah

There are more of us than you think

My favourite moment in my work was on a conference call when someone kept referring to gender. I was trying to decide whether to go in, and another woman on the call said “you mean sex, not gender. Gender is a social construct”. I didn’t know her at all, think she was a fair bit more senior than me, and I haven’t worked with her since. But we’re out there.

I've corrected a few documents at work which have referred to gender, having explained to the HR team why I have done it. All of them completely supportive.

Well done OP! As Suzanne Moore today said, there are more of us than they think.

That’s very cheering

I had to correct an HR document for an Equality committee once! It was gender instead of sex in listing protected characteristics.

Fantastic work OP these things really matter.
I got our work equality policy to reinstate sex instead of gender a while ago.
Like Stickerwoman, we’re everywhere

Fab stuff. There are more of us than they think, oh yes.

There’s a new HR manager where I work & job adverts have recently gone from saying gender instead of sex to saying ‘all protected characteristics’.

It’s a start.

That's great! I think if we all find our voices we will be unstoppable.

A workplace conversation inspired me to look more closely into the GC position.

I told a female colleague that I quite liked the Green Party and she retorted loudly - ‘what the women are non-men party’.

Ouch.

We both have daughters and the conversation progressed over time in front of other colleagues about the importance for our girls to have single sex spaces - yes the word penis kept coming up- other colleagues asked questions and contributed. It was respectful and illuminating.

There are more of us out there than you think.

I was tasked with checking and amending as necessary our Health & Safety policy and made sure all the pronouns in the pregnancy bit were 'she' and 'her' 👍