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From the article:
On an almost daily basis, another younger lawyer and I have been spoken down to, disrespected or had our legal advice disregarded, all because of our gender. This is not to say that all of our clients have acted in such a way, indeed, the vast majority are incredibly grateful for our assistance. But when a client makes baseless comments about my abilities because of my gender, it became hard not to take it personally. I’ve had a client say to me, “Oh, I didn’t think you’d be any good because of your fancy nails.” I was so taken aback by that statement. My nails somehow indicate my ability as a lawyer? If I had been a young male lawyer wearing a South Park tie, would he have said to me, “Oh, I didn’t think you’d be any good because of your silly tie?” I think not. He was judging my ability based on something that has no bearing on my ability as a lawyer, but did relate to my gender.
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From the article:
While this is obviously a bad situation, I’m fortunate in that I can stash my supplies in my desk and slip out to the “ladies room” whenever I need to do so. I don’t have to worry about it being too obvious that I’m having “female issues,” as my boss refers to it. I think back to how I might have handled this if I still worked in a restaurant or in retail and there is, literally (I don’t use this word lightly), no way I could have gone about doing my job. I couldn’t have run off to the restroom every 20 minutes, but if I didn’t, I would have had visible stains. It would have been impossible, and ultimately, embarrassing. How do you tell your employer that you have to go home because you’re bleeding all over everything when they’re a man? It makes me cringe to even think about telling any of my former male bosses. If I didn’t have a salaried position with some flexibility, I would have probably lost my job last week.
Read more at Persephone Magazine.
From the article:
While this is obviously a bad situation, I’m fortunate in that I can stash my supplies in my desk and slip out to the “ladies room” whenever I need to do so. I don’t have to worry about it being too obvious that I’m having “female issues,” as my boss refers to it. I think back to how I might have handled this if I still worked in a restaurant or in retail and there is, literally (I don’t use this word lightly), no way I could have gone about doing my job. I couldn’t have run off to the restroom every 20 minutes, but if I didn’t, I would have had visible stains. It would have been impossible, and ultimately, embarrassing. How do you tell your employer that you have to go home because you’re bleeding all over everything when they’re a man? It makes me cringe to even think about telling any of my former male bosses. If I didn’t have a salaried position with some flexibility, I would have probably lost my job last week.
Read more at Persephone Magazine.
From the article:
But that’s only part of the problem – the other part is the unhealthy, twisted graduate school culture that dictates that if you’re not making yourself miserable over your degree, then you’re not doing it right. It creates the specter of doubt that haunts a grad student’s mind (maybe I am not working enough?), and then prevents them from feeling comfortable talking about this feeling with other graduate students, except, possibly as a series of incredibly twisted jokes (I can’t let anyone know how I really feel, so let’s buy into all the sell-your-soul jokes).
Read more at Persephone Magazine.
