Sexism

So lately I’ve been getting worked up and pissed off over a minority men. Not in any kind of relationship perspective, per say, but on the views towards women/men and the stubbornness of said views and mind sets.

                Believing in true equality in every form – race, age, gender, ability, and so on – means that those few people that have it stuck in their head that one is better than the rest infuriate me beyond belief. One thing in particular that is bothering me right now is sexism. It’s something that I’ve become a lot more aware of since starting working life. When you’re in school, the guys with perverse perspectives like ‘you belong in the kitchen’ are seen more on the joke-ey side or are just jerks that you soon forget about. But when you’re in the working environment…things like that are a big issue. No matter what industry, company or workplace you’re at…it’s still an issue.

                Out of interest, I Googled ‘successful women’. What I expected to come back from that was a list of successful business women from all over the world. Is that what I found? No. I found list upon list with titles such as ‘how to be successful as a woman’, ‘how to make an impact while being a woman’…then there was one article thrown in there that states why (most) successful women are childless. I don’t know if this was just me being in a foul mood beforehand, but I was somewhat appalled.

‘how to be successful AS A WOMAN’

The last part of the title is what got me. I could understand ‘how to be successful IN BUSINESS’ or ‘how to be successful AS A PERSON’…but the fact that women somehow need completely different rules to be successful than any other person…that just doesn’t bode all that well in my mind. So from curiosity, I opened a few just to see what the ‘oh so different than men’s’ tactics were. I was horrified to find that appearance was a common theme in a few of the links. I saw tips on how you should do your make-up – how much or how little; the way you should dress;  how you need to ‘stay in shape and do some exercise’.  I would have thought it was common sense that you dress appropriate for your role, regardless of gender, but having ‘how to do you make-up’ being high on the list of ‘how to be successful’ is ridiculous. And ‘keep in shape’, why the hell should I? I’ll keep in shape to stay healthy and for my own benefit, of course, but that’s because I want to and it’s a life style choice - not because I want to be successful. You’re telling me that every male CEO in the world had to work out at the gym and get ‘in shape’ to reach that level of success? I doubt it. I’m probably reading into this way too much, but it just felt like a low blow that I need to be attractive to get somewhere in life.

I feel like there’s a lack in visibility of successful female role models to look up to. There’s a few reasons for this. One…there is a little less successful females than there is males (according to servays and statistcs online anyway). And second, when there is success for a female, it’s not exactly the biggest story in the news. I don’t think that the media shout about women in business as much as they could. I hear a lot about ‘hey look, *insert celeb name here* has had a boob job’ or ‘oh my god, look at *insert  another celeb here*’s hair!’… but rarely do I hear of the ‘ordinary’ women (when I say ordinary, I mean in business and who aren’t generally classed as A list Celebs who get followed by the media on a daily basis) who have made a huge impact in the world.

So after being so negative through this whole post, I’m going to be a little more upbeat (or attempt to at least). I want to point out some of the women I look up to. First of is the president and CEO of Yahoo!, Marissa Mayer.  She’s a 38 year old woman who’s at the top of her game, with a baby (how that for ‘successful women are childless’). She was on America’s annual list of ’50 most powerful women’ five years in a row from 2008 to 2012, which is pretty darn good going.  From her ‘small town childhood’…to her job in a local grocery store…she’s made her way up to be the CEO of one of the most recognisable and iconic businesses going. BOOM!

One of the most inspirational people, in my eyes, to watch and listen to would be Eve Ensler. I LOVE her. Eve Ensler is a prominent activist addressing issues of violence against women and girls and is one of my favorite women to listen to. She’s spoken at many TED events and always manages to make me think. On her website, she’s describes as ‘Tony Award winning playwright, performer, and activist’ so it’s safe to say she’s an incredibly talented lady.

This was really a huge ramble from when I was frustrated about something, so I do apologies that it’s a bit of a rant. As I say, everything that I’ve said is my own opinion – so please don’t be kicking off if you disagree with anything I’ve said. I will happily listen to your opposing views in a polite manor, mind you,  as long as you don’t out right say my opinion is wrong (an opinion is just that, an opinion. It can be neither wrong or right as it isn’t factual). But yea, I’ll go now.