How using a female name in an e-mail signature showed one man how difficult it is for women in the workplace

 

It all started rather innocuously when this Philadelphia-based man called Martin R Schneider, who is an editor and writer, realised how rampant and pervasive workplace sexism can be after he experienced it himself firsthand.
 

 

It started with his boss who was unhappy with a particular employee’s work who he considered not be fast enough.  Schneider was asked to step in.   And so he did.
 

He noticed that one client was being unnecessarily unreasonable whilst being rude and dismissive.
 

 

 

It was then that he realised he had been signing off as his colleague because of their shared inbox. So, Schnieder then decided to introduce himself, and he couldn’t believe the change in tone and positive responsiveness.
 

 

 

 

 

And then he decided to run a little experiment for two weeks – they decided to switch names.
 

 

 

 

The results astounded him.

 

 

 

When he brought this to the attention of his boss, his boss didn’t believe his story

 

 

After having experienced the sheer horror, Schenider had just one thing to say:  "Here's the real fucked-up thing: For me, this was shocking. For her, she was USED to it. She just figured it was part of her job, adding further. (I mean, she knew she was being treated different for being a woman, she's not dumb. She just took it in stride.)”

 

You can read the entire thread here.   Nicole Hallberg wrote her own account