Commentary: Working Outside The Pink Ghetto

As any woman who's ventured outside the “pink ghetto” of traditional women's jobs can tell you, sexism continues to be very much a part of our business culture. To be sure, laws meant to protect women's rights and guarantee equality have definitely helped. Women in the board room and female CEOs, unheard of a generation or so ago, are now fairly commonplace. But for every woman who's made it in “the man's world,” there are at least two or three who've been unable to overcome the obstacles that are set in their path.

These are obstacles that do not exist for men. Whenever a woman sets out to achieve success in a field that's traditionally reserved for men, she must not only be as good as the men at her job, she must go around roadblocks that are not there for men in the same field. She faces resistance at every turn, a resistance that's often ugly. Our legislatures may pass hundreds of laws in attempts to further level the playing field to no avail, because inherited unconscious attitudes cannot be legislated away.

“Unconscious” may, indeed, be the key word here. A majority of men, and many women, seem to have notions about the abilities and expected behavior of women that lie beneath the surface of consciousness. Men often bristle when confronted with a woman who expects to be treated as a professional equal, even while they are denying that they have trouble coping with strong women. Many men unconsciously expect women to defer to them and react defensively when a woman acts with authority. In social situations, this is bad enough. In the business world, where men still hold most of the power, the results can be akin to tragic.

An example of this would be Jennifer, who served as the executive chef at a popular “four star” restaurant for seven years. Several years back, she took a job working on the line at another popular dining spot, and ran up against the “boys club” mentality in the kitchen almost from day one.

Ironically, although cooking has traditionally been considered “women's work,” at gourmet dining spots where a chef commands a formidable salary, cooking is a man's domain, and women who are trying to enter the field are treated with much resentment. In Jennifer's case, her previous experience had been at a restaurant owned and operated by a woman, which kept sexist attitudes at bay. She was completely unprepared for the situation that confronted her at the new job.

“It started with a Sous Chef who would roll his eyes and treat me like a child,” Jennifer explained. “When I was trying to move a hot dish or pan, he would practically push me out of the way, and grab the pan out of my hand, like I was incompetent.”

Things only got worse. When the head chef was away from the kitchen, the other cooks would gang up on her, treat her with open hostility and rudely mimic her voice and mannerisms. Often they would go so far as to sabotage her food, just to make her look bad and damage her reputation. When she would complain to her superiors, they would merely shrug and say that they'd look into it, indicating that they didn't believe her complaints valid. In fact, they acted like they thought she was imagining her harassment. After all, everyone knows that women are overly sensitive.

“I know all of this sounds petty,” she said, “but it made my work day a complete hell. Nobody wants to work hard, trying to take pride in the work they do, while being made to feel like dirt.”

Other employees, mainly female wait staff, could see what she was going through and a female supervisor from the dining room eventually came to her rescue during a management meeting. After pointing out the harassment that she'd witnessed, she added, “Jennifer could sue us.” This caught her supervisors' attention, and the situation was largely rectified, although tension from other employees remained. But after two years of battling embarrassment and humiliation, Jennifer was in no mood to now be “part of the family.” As soon as she found another job, she left.

Since then, she still hasn't been able to find a job where her talents are appreciated. Just recently she took employment as the executive chef at a country club where she found that the good ol' boy network was in no way going to accept a woman as equal. As soon as they discovered that she wasn't going to defer to them they went to great lengths to sabotage her every move and eventually forced her out of her job. Unemployed again, she's not sure that she wants to fight this battle yet another time.

Jennifer's story is not unusual. If she was young and “cute,” or if she deferred to the male staff, she would probably be employed now. But because she chooses to stand on her own, she finds herself being regarded as a “bitch.” These are attitudes that can't be legislated away.

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