Social and physical barriers at work stand in women’s way
There is a reason the air conditioning at work and the convention center is set so low.
Men set the temperature to accommodate men, who typically wear an undershirt, dress shirt, tie and wool jacket as part of their business uniform, even in the summer. Aggravating matters, the women’s dress code involves fewer, lighter layers.
From the International Women’s Day luncheon in Houston to the gender awareness panels at the South by Southwest Conference in Austin, women are speaking up about the social and physical impediments to workplace acceptance and success.
Women, who represent half the workforce, no longer want to adapt to norms set by men for men, they are demanding a workplace that accommodates and rewards everyone.
The #MeToo and #TimesUp movements, which expect an end to sexual harassment and discrimination, have amplified women’s voices.
“We have hit the point of awareness, and now I think there is this realization that we do have a lot of power, and we have this huge platform collectively, but also individually,” Carolyn Rodz, a Houston-based serial entrepreneur, told the Greater Houston Partnership‘s Rise to the Top Luncheon. “I think this is our chance to take advantage of that.”
Rodz, who founded an orga-
nization called Alice to support female entrepreneurs, joined other speakers in advising women how to break down office cultures that hold women to different standards. For example, how men consider assertive men as leaders while calling women bossy.
“One thing is to be the boss. The other is to be bossy,” said Luz Damaris Rosario, a chemist who is now the general manager of the Goya Foods plant in Houston.
“When I am in charge of a group of people, I try as much as permissible to get consensus, but I when have to take the decision, I do it.”
At South by Southwest, Dr. Saralyn Mark focused on how most products and work environments are designed for men, placing women at a physical disadvantage.
Whether the cabin of an automobile, recommended dosages for medications or equipment that causes repetitive stress injuries, too many companies only prototype products based only on male bodies.
“If you tailor just for men, or just for women, you begin marginalizing,” Mark, a women’s health specialist and former NASA adviser, said. “We need communities talking to each other, listening to each other, to meet each other’s needs.”
Mark founded iGiant to help companies address these issues, and she said the key is designing for different physiologies and cultural needs from the beginning.
“Looking at it from a cost perspective, it probably doesn’t cost that much more when you do it from the start,” Mark said. “Simple little tweaks can have a profound impact.”
A culture that discriminates against women can also lead to the denigration of gay men and vice versa, explained Wade Davis, a gender and race equality consultant who came out as gay after retiring from the NFL. Many of the terms used to humiliate gay men refer to traditionally female attributes, which are by implication considered inferior.
To end workplace discrimination, Davis advises men to live up to their ideals about bravery and courage to stand up to misogynists and tear down barriers that disadvantage people who are not masculine.
Men need to police other men.
“No one cares if you think you are a good guy,” Davis said. “The question is: What are you doing? Actions are what people are looking for.”
Actions are especially important as women prepare for the backlash that has historically come whenever the fight for gender equality has escalated in the past.
“The #MeToo movement has shined a spotlight on women,” Shauna Clark, head of the U.S. employment and labor law section of the law firm Norton Rose Fulbright, told the luncheon in Houston. “For me the better question is whether this engagement we’re seeing across the country and around the world will actually be sustained and actually effect change.”
We are already hearing so-called conservative voices railing against women’s rights and gender equality.
But these oppressive voices are reactionary, not conservative. Conservatives and liberals can agree that fair, honest competition is good and rewards should be based on merit.
Disadvantaging people based on immutable characteristics is fundamentally wrong. So is creating a workplace designed to hinder someone because of who they are.
There is so much to accomplish that all must do their part where they can.
But perhaps as a first step, companies can turn up the thermostat in the office.
Men will welcome the chance to dress down and companies will see lower electricity bills when women can turn off the space heaters under their desks.