Today my Twitter feed included a link to an event for women which, among other things, will give me a chance to learn how to get a pay-rise and get tips on negotiating for equal treatment at work.
This makes me very cross.
Not because someone’s organising the event, but because once again the focus is on teaching women how to get fair treatment in the world.
Where are the events that teach managers and business owners how to pay their staff what they’re actually worth, and how to treat all their staff fairly and equally? Why must it be women’s responsibility to teach their managers these things?
It seems to me this is a very subtle form of victim-blaming – it says the reason women aren’t paid or treated fairly in the workplace is because they fail to ask to be paid or treated fairly. It puts the responsibility on to women to ensure managers treat them fairly, rather than requiring managers to ensure they treat everyone fairly.
My message is this – IT IS NOT MY JOB TO TEACH YOU TO BE A DECENT HUMAN BEING. It is also not my job to teach you how to look after all your staff – male and female – so you can retain the skilled and hard-working people you need to make your business successful. If you, as a manager, can’t pay me or treat me fairly in the workplace, you don’t deserve me and I will leave. Unfortunately for many women that isn’t an option. They need the job. And there isn’t always a shiny new, fair-pay, fair-treatment job waiting for them. That’s why women stay despite being paid unfairly and treated unfairly.
I know the organisers of this event have the best of intentions. They want women to have a fair deal. But by making it women’s responsibility to persuade others to give them that fair deal, they are reinforcing the idea that it’s women’s fault they’re not getting that deal already.
Also, trying to attract attendees with promises of bubbles and goody bags is pretty darn patronising I reckon. But hey, we all know that’s what us girlies really want. Not fair and equal treatment in the workplace as a basic right.
