What happened when a man and woman switched names at work

What happened when a man and woman switched names at work March 18, 2017

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Over on the other blog I run I’ve been sharing a lot of posts about gender, so this from the Independent caught my eye:

Men and women work side by side, often tackling the same business issues, sitting through the same meetings and walking the same hallways but the common ground might just end there.

Martin R. Schneider, an editor for the movie-reviewing site Front Row Central based in Philadelphia, realised men and women are treated differently in the workplace after he accidentally signed off on emails using his female co-worker’s signature.

He tweeted the experience that made him realise women do not get the same in the workplace. The tweet has been liked nearly 7,000 and shared more than 5,400 times at the time of writing. [Read more]

Once Schneider accidentally “became” a woman, he found clients far more difficult to deal with.

His co-worker, who eventually stopped working for the company, has written a follow-up here on Medium about how the boss refused to believe the results of their experiment:

I will always wonder. What did my boss have to gain by refusing to believe that sexism exists? Even when the evidence is screaming at him, even when his employee who makes him an awful lot of money is telling him, even when THE BOY on staff is telling him?? [Read more]

I can certainly vouch for the fact that it’s a rare male correspondent who notes and uses my professional titles, clearly stated in my email signature. Women correspondents nearly always do. Maybe I should tweet that.

 


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