by Chauncey Kenton

Created on: October 11, 2008

After all our awareness about the women's movement, I wish I could say that it does not exist in corporate America, but it does. Sexism is alive and well, and it doesn't matter if you work in a blue or white collar environment.

Let me give you some examples from my work experience:

At one of my former jobs in the 1990s, the company was very involved in community volunteer work. The women were expected to volunteer as "lunch buddies" at the schools, and the guys were give time off in the afternoons to practice for charity basketball games with other company leagues. When the company CEO was asked why the women had to take personal leave time to volunteer at the schools (if their lunches ran late), and the guys were given administrative leave to play basketball, the man said "Because the men get sweaty and need to take showers." He added that the "women were needed back in the office to get the work done, while the company could spare the men."

At another job, only the men were invited to go the the yearly NASCAR race in Daytona Beach, Florida. When I asked the company president why the women weren't invited, he stated that this was a "boy's weekend out." The company paid all the expenses; there was no budget allocations for a "girl's weekend out."

At yet another job, I prepared the payroll budgets, and I was astounded at how much the men's salaries exceeded the women's in most all the departments. My male manager and I were discussing what percentage to use to calculate for annual budget increases, and his comment to me was as follows "Use 5% for all the male employees, and 3% for the females." When I questioned him as to the difference in budget amounts, he explained so patiently to me that the women worked because they wanted to, but the men worked because they had to. It reminded me of that comedy routine called "You can't fix stupid!" I didn't even try to straighten him out on that one; I just found a new job.

Now fast forward to my white-collar environment in 2008, and this was the comment that I heard last week (during a meeting) when I was discussing a recent business contact. One of my colleagues said, "Oh, are you talking about Stacy with the big boobs?" I would never use similar language about the male anatomy to describe a person, especially in a business meeting. All the men laughed and said, "Yeah, that one!" The other female colleague just shook her head, and gave me a look that said, "Hey, sister, they've all got the Al Bundy syndrome!"

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