<p>There are many male dominated fields that are challenging for women to be part of. I suspect there are fields rougher than those in finance. Women end up adapting, fighting back, complaining or leaving those fields. Things have gotten far better over the years, though, and I really appreciate that because I just don’t have the stomach to be cocky and crude anymore. I ended up adapting, but it has gotten far easier than it used to be. Funny thing is that I rarely have a problem any more with other pilots (maybe because I’m the one in charge), but occasionally it’s the taxi drivers and the mechanics that can’t seem to deal with women. The Arab guys are the worst, they seem baffled and annoyed.</p>
<p>Of course women rate men…soccerguy you get a 2…no I’m kidding, how about an 8?</p>
<p>My objection is to rating women on sexual attractiveness to their faces. Do women rate male workplace colleagues on sexual attractiveness to their faces? That seems to me to be something more typically done by men.</p>
<p>CF
The article didn’t say it was done in any woman’s face or that it was directed at any woman in particular. For all we know it was said to other men and overheard, or said in jest</p>
<p>Bay, read more closely. The article said that in classroom discussions, male students hazed female students and younger faculty and “openly ruminated on whom they would “kill, sleep with or marry” (in cruder terms).” Openly. In the classroom.</p>
<p>I did read the comments. They were pretty disgusting, and although some women reported they did not experience sexism at HBS, overall the comments confirmed the article.</p>
<p>“At HBS [ten years ago], I was voted the woman our section would most like to see naked. It was considered a compliment.”</p>
<p>CF,
I didn’t find any of it disgusting, and I am a woman. I was also a law student for 3 years, and there were men (and women) in my section who were so annoying, that while I would never kill them, if they died the next day, I honestly would not have missed them. There were men I wanted to sleep with and did. There were no men I wanted to marry, because they were either too nerdy, short, bald, unattractive, skinny, fat, unattractive, or married. For me, there is nothing shocking or disgusting at all in 20 somethings having sexual thoughts about each other, or men having those thoughts about women. That is normal in my book. It has just become politically incorrect to voice those thoughts in some settings, and apparently that is what happened at HBS.</p>
<p>sally305: yeah, and decades ago, women were penalised for getting educated at all, delaying marriage, going into male-dominated fields, or even voting. But thankfully, our foremothers were not wilting flowers; they fought for equal rights.</p>
<p>Methinks that they would be ashamed by brilliant, accomplished women who were too scared to raise their hands in class. I mean, raising their hands - we’re not talking about advocating for the Nineteenth Amendment or anything.</p>
If being dominant and hyper-aggressive is what leads to success in the upper echelons of investment banking, then perhaps a kindler, gentler classroom is doing the students a disservice. Or, is it possible that HBS grads will be able to foment change once they enter those fields?</p>
<p>I don’t rate men, but I do notice when guys are particularly funny or have strong character. I do prefer these men over the others. </p>
<p>That said, it is stunning to me the number of allegedly liberal institutions which still allow sexism as a given in places where racists would be labeled as abhorrent.</p>
<p>We have a family friend (a former roommate of my daughter) who was a 2013 graduate of HBS and thus was right in the middle of the events covered in the article. And she said she thought the article read like a feature in Us Weekly rather than an accurate article about gender equity at HBS. </p>
<p>She also said that the whole HBS experience just wasn’t nearly so salacious as the article implies. She said that any HBS student could have provided a much better, more balanced, and more accurate discussion of gender equity issues at HBS than the article did.</p>
<p>So it looks to me like this is largely another exercise in journalistic exaggeration and sensationalism. (Shocking, I know.)</p>
It’s nice to get a “heads up” about what I might encounter in the work force. Looks like the guys don’t get any better. </p>
<p>In my three weeks of college, I’ve experienced this discrimination first hand. It was a lot different from in high school. In college, the discrimination was much more vulgar. You’d think the guys wouldn’t think it’d be ok to say such things…And I know the engineering guys talk about the engineering girls behind their backs. It’s a matter if time before it’s to their face. </p>
<p>I do agree with cromette about girls having to prove themselves more. I’m the only girl in t upper level science class and there’s an added pressure to be on my A game.</p>
<p>Thanks, alh, that is nice of you. I never wanted to be one of the earlier ones in my field, I just wanted to be one of many, and not feel like a freak. There still are very few women in my field, but it’s always a treat to work with one.</p>
<p>I wish, as women, that we could do a better job of supporting one another in the work place.</p>
<p>Sexism will never disappear because in the end, everything comes down to sex. We can pretend that it does not in the workplace, but that is simply a fantasy. Put a good looking woman in a business suit and place her in an office, and all of the heterosexual men are going to notice and imagine. Its low class to say what they are thinking of course, but you can be sure, if they are normal, that they are thinking it. Then take this natural phenomenon and increase its effect given the wealth, power and arrogance of the men, and you have what occurs naturally. And deep down, many accomplished men simply do not look at women as their equals. Some women try too hard and are considered baitches. Or they are considered weak and emotional. They really can’t win. If women don’t want to deal with this, they may as well stay out of the business world.</p>