Far from equality

I am all for gender equality, I certainly believe that women can do as good a job as men (with a few exceptions where brute strength is needed).  I also believe that we are not the same – but nor are we that different. In fact I believe that regardless of gender we are all somewhat different. One of the best managers I have ever had was a woman, by far the worst manager I have had was a woman, I have had great male managers and terrible ones. The same for people in my team I have managed great and less great people of both gender in my time – and to be frank I don’t think their greatness or lack thereof has anything to do with gender.

It annoys me when I read that women need to “lean in”. Why do we have to do that? And do many men not need to do the same?

 I know very few female senior managers (and a lot of male), so I follow some “women in business” twitter accounts and have joined some groups of female leaders on linkedIn. And this is where I get disappointed, a group for professional women on Linked In the discussions are sexist (but we make it that way). There are discussions on RBF (Resting Bitch Face) as it is worse for women to have a resting face that looks serious than for men? (Really!!), what to wear? (Men and women alike – wear something appropriate and comfortable), what does women entrepreneur need to know? (I guess pretty much the same as male entrepreneurs).

I am sad that although women have fought so long for equality, we still so far from both job and pay equality. But sometimes we are our own worst enemy.