A Look at the 'Attack on Women' by View of a Mirror.

A look at the 'Attack on Women' by view of a mirror.

I started this as a reply to a post on this topic on LinkedIn, then found myself with a blog post of my own that could be misinterpreted as a case of one-up-womanship. Since I shudder at the idea of trying to upstage someone else's excellent topic, I've decided to post it on my own blog and send you a link to Kharis Macey's topic post. Don't stop there. Her continuing topics are wonderful as well.

I haven't personally seen the medical politics of the sort experienced by you (read the relevent on LinkedIn), but have heard of it from others. I'm in the tech field, which is still thought of as very male-oriented/preferred.

Overall, it seems that women prefer men to work on their computer equipment and are quick to base perceived skill assessments on that measure, not past history. Men, in general, are often quicker to accept assistance from a woman without stating the, "I don't know if you can help." qualifier first.

In my personal experience, I also physically see very few women actively working in the electronics field in service, repair, or installation. The women that I do meet, are often online or over the phone in a support capacity.

Of course, I live in a very southern mindset entrenched area where over the years, I have actually been called "little lady", been looked at funny and been refused to be called by a hyphenated name, and have had my abilities to operate a cordless drill questioned. All of that being a type of everyday sexism that I imagine will likely not go away for a few more generations.

But overall the men I work with are gentlemen who are willing to step back and let me "take a go at it". This is Texas after all, and few of average men are willing to tell a woman what she can't do. As I mentioned before, women often view other women with suspicion in relation to thier own status, and are far quicker to throw each other 'under the bus'. Not just to get ahead, but simply to save face with nothing at stake. Which is funny because nearly 20 yrs ago, I got out of anything construction-related for much the same reason. .

The very best thing as we can do as women, mothers, aunts, and mentors in general, is to teach the younger generation of females that we are not in competition with one another. That competitive assassination of one another is a weakness that reflects badly on all of us as a whole, no matter our race, religion, or orientation. It's another tick mark that reflects negatively on women in a business environment.

When we take away the physical differences, we ARE the same inside, with the same emotions, and the same desires to succeed in life, whatever our goals. When we, as women, lift one other up, both in business and beyond, the things that we can teach one another as a 'Sisterhood' (I truly liked your analogy) are endless.

By the way, the Ban Bossy website: banbossy.com offers some wonderful material and further links on the subject of teaching the younger generation of females that is okay to self-advocate and stamping out the stigmatism that is often attributed to women who do stand up for themselves.

Buffi BeCraft
buffibecraft.net
@BuffiBeCraft