Work Women's Network

[ChiefWiggumsBoy]

I work for a high street bank as a middle manager in change. I’ve been nominated by my team to the Diversity and Inclusion Champ for this year (lucky me!).

We used to have a specific Women’s Network, although I forget exactly the name. Now it’s called WIN, and this is the description:

Wins mission is to engage all genders across the organisation to attract, develop, promote and retain cis and trans women at all levels of our organisation

Win partners with our sister ERGs to drive diversity & inclusion and eliminate power imbalances, discrimination and inequality

Win creates spaces to drive role model behaviour; where men can share opportunities, celebrate accomplishments and offer sponsorship & visibility

I feel completely divorced from this as a woman. It means nothing to me. It says that trans women (aka men) and also just, y’know, men (aren’t they lucky they don’t have to suffer the prefix ‘cis’) are the ones to watch in this space.

I will be writing to the person who heads up this network, I think I will use some statements from the Glinner Update email I got today, but I was hoping the good women of this board could help me craft something that won’t be dismissed as just a transphobic Karen .

(Also please don’t out me to my organisation if you recognise this!)

TIA.

The New Global Empire of Disembodiment is the article I referenced.

I’m in a&e at the moment with my son and my phone’s going to die soon so don’t think I’m ignoring you!

It’s also just occurred to me that we have an LGBTQ+ network as well. Not sure what my point is but I’m sure there’s one brewing.

I have no advice for you OP but I'm sure the clever Dinosaurs will be along in a moment. My organisation's women's network recently rebranded as 'Women Plus' and is "open to all employees of [Corporation]"

Congratulations on your nomination, and please keep us posted!

My two pennies worth, I would approach as if I wanted to understand as it doesn't make sense, you want to learn, be a informed candidate etc etc...

"Wins mission is to engage all genders across the organisation to attract, develop, promote and retain cis and trans women at all levels of our organisation"

Please can you explain this further so I can understand? I'm not sure how many genders there are. If this group is for women surely this is about sex not 'gender' (identity) and therefore the focus is for women (female) to be retained in their posts through the organisation.

"Win partners with our sister ERGs to drive diversity & inclusion and eliminate power imbalances, discrimination and inequality"

I agree that the imbalance between the male and female employees needs to be added by this group, regardless of race, disability or religion. Does WIN measure instances of inequality with sister ERGS?

"Win creates spaces to drive role model behaviour; where men can share opportunities, celebrate accomplishments and offer sponsorship & visibility"

Whilst I appreciate where this comes from the idea that men are the ones to offer opportunities only seeks to support a patriarchal structure within [name of company] To me, this suggests that the opportunities made available to women will only be accessible if the men make this so.

Please can you qualify your position on this?

• let us know how you get on OP!

Wins mission is to engage all genders across the organisation to attract, develop, promote and retain cis and trans women at all levels of our organisation

You could ask what 'cis and trans women' have in common. It could be interesting to ask if they hold data or are interested in collating data on what the different needs/priorities of these two types of women are.

(Obviously we know that trans women are not a type of woman, but like OhHolyJesus says, you just would like to understand things better....)

We similarly converted our womens network to a “gender” network. So far we’ve had a trans woman come in to let us know how to get ahead as a woman and celebrate international mens day.

Funnily enough the LGBT/ethnic minority/neurodiverse/differently abled groups haven’t had to centre straight/neurotypical/white people in their activities, just the women’s network.

@Porridgeislife

We similarly converted our womens network to a “gender” network. So far we’ve had a trans woman come in to let us know how to get ahead as a woman and celebrate international mens day.

Funnily enough the LGBT/ethnic minority/neurodiverse/differently abled groups haven’t had to centre straight/neurotypical/white people in their activities, just the women’s network.

Funny that, isn't it?

@Porridgeislife

We similarly converted our womens network to a “gender” network. So far we’ve had a trans woman come in to let us know how to get ahead as a woman and celebrate international mens day.

Funnily enough the LGBT/ethnic minority/neurodiverse/differently abled groups haven’t had to centre straight/neurotypical/white people in their activities, just the women’s network.

Well that's a surprise...

Maybe the best thing for women who find themselves in these positions is to try to ignore the stuff that's not about women and concentrate their efforts on a positive focus on matters relevant to women for "diversity & inclusion and eliminate power imbalances, discrimination and inequality". There are massive structural issues for women - particularly around pregnancy/maternity/motherhood and some going through the menopause relating to retention and promotion.

Thank you all!

I’m not thrilled about being given this extra work to do, but I do want to sow some seeds. I will take all your advice on board and probably come back to you all for some more tips!

Also I just want to share a bit more detail about this.

So last year, they created a brand new role in the organisation that was diversity something or another. A woman I know has the role and she came into our team meeting to talk about the agendas and stuff.

She’s a black woman. And she told us (a group made up of entirely white people) about how she had a conversation with a Director and he said something about ‘coloured’ people. A few minutes goes by, and he says something like “oh dear, I hope I didn’t offend you, coloured is not allowed anymore is it?”

And she said she didn’t mind . That she’d rather be called black than coloured but it was ok.

The power imbalance is just off the charts. She couldn’t challenge someone like that even as part of a role specifically built to champion diversity. I honestly was gobsmacked when she told that story.

Not hugely relevant but just thought I’d share….

I would either resign or just focus on very specific female concerns. But I have lost all ambition and just want to do a reasonable job these days. I believe transphobia does have a huge dose of misogyny in it but misogyny also exists on its own and deserves addressing.

@ErrolTheDragon

Maybe the best thing for women who find themselves in these positions is to try to ignore the stuff that's not about women and concentrate their efforts on a positive focus on matters relevant to women for "diversity & inclusion and eliminate power imbalances, discrimination and inequality". There are massive structural issues for women - particularly around pregnancy/maternity/motherhood and some going through the menopause relating to retention and promotion.

That's what I was going to suggest. As much as possible, try to ignore all the gender noise.

Keep in mind what women actually need and want. Keep women at the fore of your thinking when it comes to feminism.

Focus on addressing things like understanding of women's health issues; menopause; maternity/pregnancy; childcare; addressing sexism; harassment, etc.

breastfeeding at work; mentoring; mental health support; networking.

I mean, just ignore the bullshit and focus on what actually matters.

Sadly you are quite likely to get pushback for this.

So, does this mean this new "women" network will ignore the needs of non-binary and trans females? How very inclusive...