Just starting out

I’ve been in the workplace for over 30 years, and I’m still learning to navigate the obstacles women face on a daily basis. What about our young women, just starting out? How will they know what to do when asked to take notes in the meetings or arrange for lunch or when they see their male colleagues receiving preferential treatment? Will they know to push back on seemingly minor requests, to keep from being branded as the “girl” who takes care of the men’s needs?

Were today’s young women raised differently from those of us who have been around awhile? Probably. Perhaps they were told – like me – that women can do or be anything they want. Perhaps they were brought up to believe that men and women are equal and will receive equal treatment. Or maybe they are not so naïve. Maybe they know that equality is still a dream, and that we have to continue to stand up for ourselves and educate each other to ensure that the dream will one day come true.

But there is always that first shocking realization. The first time you notice how women are treated differently. Maybe it’s the coffee. Or you get a glimpse of a salary you almost wish you hadn’t seen. Or the subtle – or blatant – sexual harassment. Or the sudden realization that almost everyone above you on the corporate ladder is male.

For me it was the salary discrimination (see my blog entry on Good Girls Revolt).

Jane, a recent Computer Science graduate, was only a couple months at her new company when she realized she was being treated differently from her male colleagues. At her first meeting, she was asked to take notes, and was told they would take turns in this role in the future. At first, she didn’t mind, because she found it useful to capture everything going on, and review it later before sending the notes to the group. As she became more familiar with the project, she had more of her own ideas to put forth, and found the note-taking a distraction from the content of the meeting. It wasn’t until she realized she had taken notes at 30 meetings in a row that she decided to ask for help. She emailed her manager, “It has been a good learning experience taking notes for the meetings since I first joined. Now that I have had that task for the past 30 meetings, I think the project could benefit from a new perspective. Could we go back to the round robin approach of having the team members take turns in this role?”

Jane handled this beautifully. She could have just kept doing what was asked of her without question – something women do all too often to keep from making waves. Or she could have complained to her teammates that she was the only one taking notes and it wasn’t fair – another common mistake that could have had her labeled as negative and likely wouldn’t have resulted in changed behavior. Instead, she confronted it directly, with a positive spin, and asked her manager to facilitate the change.

Jane’s professional approach to this problem gives me hope for our young people. Maybe they will be better at this than we were, or maybe they are learning from our mistakes. In my book, “Savvy Women: Gaining Ground at Work”, I share stories and lessons learned from a dozen professional women, with the hopes of helping other women as they navigate their professional careers.