Extract from Why Men Win At Work by Gill Whitty-Collins

why men win at work
why people made an issue of it. I am rather ashamed to admit
that I used to be one of those women who was rather arrogant
and dismissive of women who talked about gender inequality,
and believed the issue was that they were perhaps not strong
enough and should ‘man up’ – or should I say, ‘woman up’.
And then I saw it. And once I had seen it, I saw it everywhere.
Not the old-school ‘bum tap in the photocopy room’ kind.
(Although I know this does still happen, along with its sinister
digital age evolution of instant messenger stalking.) No, what
I became aware of was the invisible kind. The unconscious
kind of gender discrimination that is so embedded in our
psyches that even good men with good intentions participate
in and contribute to, men who would count themselves
as unconditional believers in equality. The kind that is so
unconscious and in-visible that even women themselves
sometimes don’t see it happening and, even worse, contribute
to it themselves. The kind that ultimately defeated me, when
so many other barriers along the way had not – and has
defeated, is defeating and will defeat many women in their
careers if we continue to allow it to. The kind that is the real,
underlying reason why women struggle to succeed and are so
under-represented at the top levels in business and society.
And so now I have personally seen and understood it, I am
livid, and I need to talk about it and do something about
it. Why are men still winning at work? Why do we accept
that we are living in a man’s world where over 90% of all
leadership positions in society and business are held by men
and no progress is being made? We have seen that even a global
pandemic couldn’t shift us on gender equality – when I began
writing this book a year ago it was clear we were stuck and
since then we have even gone into reverse, thanks to Covid-19.
Women have taken on even more of the burden of housework
and childcare to the detriment of their careers and face a ‘Not
now dear’ response to any attempt at equality or diversity
discussions because this is not seen as a priority in a crisis. Yes,
10