Story 284
I’ve read many of the stories on this platform and can relate to so much but what hits hardest are the constant microaggressions that wear you down. Being talked over in meetings, having an idea land only after a male colleague repeats it, being described as “too direct” for the same behavior that earns men praise. Over time, it creates this constant awareness that you’re not just doing your job – you’re also managing how you’re perceived in a way that others don’t have to think about.
Individually, each moment can be brushed off, even rationalized. But together, they shape how you move through your career – what risks you take, when you speak up, how much you push back. There’s a quiet exhaustion in always having to calibrate yourself, in wondering whether a missed opportunity was about performance or something less tangible. You learn to be resilient, of course, but resilience shouldn’t be a prerequisite for being treated fairly. I don’t know what’s to be done about it – it’s such an entrenched problem and women are expected to smile through it all. (Several women have made that joke here, so kinda fun to keep it going! You have to laugh, right?)