One young, male engineer I worked with was creepy. Deliberately creepy, I think. He was about ten years younger than me but a male chauvinist.
He would routinely walk up to me on the factory floor and say, "The Good Ol' Boys Network is alive and well. And, you'll never be a member because, well, look at you, (long pause) you're a woman." During that pause his eyes would slowly travel down my body then back up. He would stare into my eyes a few more seconds then walk off.
Other times he would tell me, "You think you're part of the Good Ol' Boys Club but you're not and never will be. You're a woman." Sometimes he would hurriedly walk by stating, "You'll never be part of the Club." Those statements were not accompanied by the full body scan. He would make his statements and walk off. Occasionally he would ask my thoughts. Generally I'd just look at him in silence.
I couldn't imagine why he would ever say those things to a fellow engineer regardless of gender. I haven't made those statements to anyone. Besides, I'll never have to worry about the boardroom and I've known that all of my life.
At lunch, this guy routinely discussed going to men's clubs because he felt a certain power being surrounded by naked women. I thought it revealed an insecurity in him but I'm no expert on men and certainly no psychologist.
I heard these things so often it was sad. I thought he was trying to intimidate me, make me feel ostracized, produce insecurities about my job, belittle me for being female, make me feel condescended, demean me, etc.
Naively I had no idea what I was up against. He didn't succeed because he was not sufficiently important enough at the time to make a difference in my mind. However, he does illustrate that negative discrimination against women in the workplace is not limited to my father's and grandfather's generations.
Negative discrimination against women doesn't know boundaries. It just knows discrimination to disadvantage women for various reasons.
He would routinely walk up to me on the factory floor and say, "The Good Ol' Boys Network is alive and well. And, you'll never be a member because, well, look at you, (long pause) you're a woman." During that pause his eyes would slowly travel down my body then back up. He would stare into my eyes a few more seconds then walk off.
Other times he would tell me, "You think you're part of the Good Ol' Boys Club but you're not and never will be. You're a woman." Sometimes he would hurriedly walk by stating, "You'll never be part of the Club." Those statements were not accompanied by the full body scan. He would make his statements and walk off. Occasionally he would ask my thoughts. Generally I'd just look at him in silence.
I couldn't imagine why he would ever say those things to a fellow engineer regardless of gender. I haven't made those statements to anyone. Besides, I'll never have to worry about the boardroom and I've known that all of my life.
At lunch, this guy routinely discussed going to men's clubs because he felt a certain power being surrounded by naked women. I thought it revealed an insecurity in him but I'm no expert on men and certainly no psychologist.
I heard these things so often it was sad. I thought he was trying to intimidate me, make me feel ostracized, produce insecurities about my job, belittle me for being female, make me feel condescended, demean me, etc.
Naively I had no idea what I was up against. He didn't succeed because he was not sufficiently important enough at the time to make a difference in my mind. However, he does illustrate that negative discrimination against women in the workplace is not limited to my father's and grandfather's generations.
Negative discrimination against women doesn't know boundaries. It just knows discrimination to disadvantage women for various reasons.
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