Misogyny at work

[lunaticfringer]

I work in a senior role in a fairly progressive non profit.

Like most organisations it's a bit dominated by men at the top of the organisation.

My problem is that I'm increasingly noticing how poorly women are treated and spoken to by senior men. It sounds ridiculous but I'm noticing that some of the senior men (including our CEO) tend to speak quite harshly to female colleagues and less so to the men. Also I'm seeing problems dealt with differently. If something goes wrong in a male led division it's smoothed over and the pressure they are under is cited in mitigation. A mistake in a female led division is treated more seriously.

I have never complained about a work place matter or been complained about. But I don't feel comfortable with the double standards I'm seeing. How can I raise this or counter it when I see it?

Starting off with:
Do you have a HR team / department ?
Do you have policies /frameworks about equality / fair treatment ?
Are there clear expectations of behaviour stated in your workplace ?

Yes all those things in place. But tone of voice is really hard to hold to account.

So if I said - hey CEO have you noticed that you bark orders at me, but gently suggest ideas to my male peers he will just deny it surely - and how do you prove it? If I say (which I have) it's noticeable that you thanked the men on this project not the women then he will rectify in the moment but then do again.

To give an example- two of my team worked on a very difficult time critical project successfully. He wrote to the man to thank him but not the woman.

I had a meeting with a male peer on a project that involves both our expertise. When another male joined the meeting he said "ah it's great having someone here who knows what they are talking about".

Should I take that to HR?

two of my team worked on a very difficult time critical project successfully. He wrote to the man to thank him but not the woman.

I eoukd ask him why he thanked the man only, and how does he think it reflects on the organisation.

When another male joined the meeting he said "ah it's great having someone here who knows what they are talking about".

I'd have challenged that, too. If you didn't know what you were talking about, why would you have been in the meeting?

It may not help your cause to point these things out, but it sounds like his attitude will mean that nothing you do will be good enough, on account of not having the testicle of objectivity and all that, so you might as well stir things up anyway (and get your CV out there.) It's not going to improve if no one speaks up. It may not improve if you do, but if it were me, I'd at least know I had tried to improve things.

Do they have any unconscious bias training there? It is of limited use, as the people for whom the knowledge is most needed aren't sufficiently self-aware to see it in themselves - but I have worked with a couple of men to whom it really was enlightening (and I didn't shout, "well, if you'd been listening to what I'd been saying all these years, it wouldn't have been such news!" I did think it very loudly, though!)