Have you suffered at work/ had to silence yourself because of being GC?

[pattihews]

Sex Matters is looking for women who've felt under pressure at work because of their GC views. They have a survey:

sex-matters.org/posts/updates/sex-matters-launches-survey/

I am quiet at work but say the odd thing which shows my feelings.
We were asked to put pronouns in our emails at one of my joining training sessions. Nobody in my team does though.
I did reach out to my friend who is a partner this week and leaving to go to one of the biggest firms in our industry. He told me he stands with JKR so hopefully he will speak up in the boardroom.

I haven’t suffered at work, but my company launched its new Menopause Policy today (which I completely support, by the way) but guess which word is missing? Yep, a 7 page policy about the menopause doesn’t contain the word woman. At all. I’m bloody furious about it but a) don’t know how to raise it or who with and b) know that if I do raise it I’ll get a wishy-washy lecture about inclusion and diversity and will be labelled a troublemaker which may affect future career progression and opportunities.

I stay silent. My employer is very vocal internally and in the media about their support for gender ideology. There's no way I could speak out. I'll take a look at that survey.

I really want to be able to send an email to the CEO about Stonewall and Mermaids as we heavily support both but ive a feeling they have their fingers in their ears and won't be interested other than to punish me).

I've done the survey. I stay silent because it would be career suicide not to. I'm resisting pronouns in email signatures by ignoring it but I expect to be pulled up on that soon.

I have not stayed silent and have been given a really shit time. I'm looking forward to doing the survey and hope that the free text boxes are big enough!

I work in HR in the CS and have, so far, stayed silent. However I’d never lie about my views if asked (thanks Maya and Allison for that bit of reassurance).

I will do the survey now.

Exactly the same happened where I work, lots of references to "people affected by menopause".

I've previously given feedback on training materials (eg gender being listed as a protected characteristic, rather than sex) but don't want to risk my job by speaking out any more. I wish I was braver.

I've been open about safeguarding issues in my role since 2018. I got shouted at when I did a work presentation on it (before the pandemic) by a male colleague. And also by a woman who was very vocal about promoting her support for transsexual children.

A few messaged me later and thanked me, others looked too wary to speak up. Scroll on to today: shouty man still digging heels in but I'm seeing more conversations happen even if they arent entirely in the open. Others have come forward to voice concerns. It's colleagues, mainly (sadly) female, in their thirties who seem most cult-like in their adherence to gender ideology. Some of them actually scare me.

Thanks for sharing. I've filled it in. I cannot speak up at work. GC views would not be tolerated and the women's network affinity group consider themselves allies to the LGBTQ+ one. We're also still part.of Stonewall list. I manage 2 people who are non binary and it would simply be considered bullying and harassment to express anything but total support for that. I'd be disciplined I'm sure.

Oh and yes menopause guidance refers only to people, not women. And maternity leave guidance rewritten to be gender neutral and only talk about parental leave.

It's colleagues, mainly (sadly) female, in their thirties who seem most cult-like in their adherence to gender ideology. Some of them actually scare me.

The scary ones at my place are senior people who jumped in with both feet when they knew very little about it and, now that they know more, are alternately doubling down and pretending there's no issue rather than admit they got things wrong.

Please, please, all of you, fill in the survey. It's quite straightforward and it sounds as if it could be cathartic for some of you. This is how you fight back — by giving Sex Matters the evidence that many women are struggling at work because of this.

Definitely no felt good just registering how unhappy and angry this makes me. How silenced I feel in an organisation that claims to value speaking up.

I’ve completed it.

When I worked in the pharmacy industry I was GC out and proud. Now I work in a university and know from being on this board that it's probably best to keep myself under the radar.
Having said that though when I joined the uni, they had a bit in their equality section about sex as a protected characteristic and also some wording about beliefs which I felt was a nod to Maya Forstater's case.

I've completed it, thanks for sharing OP.

I work in a university (non-academic staff, largely student-facing role). I keep my head down on this score - not sure what would actually happen if I didn't wrt colleagues but it's an institution that has had talks by high profile feminists cancelled by its SU which is enough of a warning to me. Sounds crackers written down but there it is.

As part of my job, I help run peer support groups for people with dementia. At present the groups are single sex, but we've had a heads up that we will have to mix sexes in the near future.

Although we occasionally mix the groups for big occasions, all but one of the members have stated explicitly that they prefer to stay single sex.

Just shows how morally redundant proponents of this ideology who refuse to allow those with dementia to meet in single sex groups.
Vile.

I try to keep my head down on this topic mostly, although it’s now known to some extent that I’m very anti-censorship. We sell a few products that some might deem transphobic … in the sense that they challenge trans ideology with facts. I was unfortunate enough to be on the receiving end of an aggressive rant from someone senior to me, so I reported that my manager. I did get a full apology from the colleague after that, and we had an uneasy truce. It’s fascinating to me that those preaching inclusion and tolerance are without question the most intolerant people I’ve ever met.

Thank you - I've completed and shared the survey.

Done.

Literally no one at my massive employer even whispers of being GC. It would result in a disciplinary.

It was good to fill it in and get certain things off my chest.

@MsLumley are you in the West Midlands? My workplace also has a menopause policy that doesn't mention women but does constantly go on about gender diverse people.

I've basically just outed myself at work as GC as I'm just so pissed off with all the nonsense. Just waiting to see if HR are going to be touch about my recent comments on Yammer.

I had a look at the survey. The first question is "What sex are you?"

How refreshing. It's a long time since I've seen that.