Women in Business (and Politics)

I have never been much of a ‘women’s libber’. I believe that people doing the same job should be paid the same, whether men, women or anything else, and I know that in many ways life can be a lot more difficult for professional women than men, but then life is not very fair. I also know that over the 30 plus years that I ran my PR and marketing agency we often used the fact that we were a bunch of pretty women to win a client (I always employed women because only two men ever actually wanted to come and work for me – one was gay, one wanted to be the managing director), but then there were many times that we lost out on winning a client for the same reason.

I have often said (I know, maybe just to shock 😊) that I would have been disappointed if I had never been so-called ‘sexually harassed’ when I first went out to work. In those days, being told that I looked nice, or had a good pair of legs, or even having my bottom patted, was perfectly normal, and I wanted to be thought of as attractive, so I liked it.  And I always appreciate having the door held open for me, or my chair held out, or to be brought flowers … I like being a woman.

Having said all of that, and having worked in one male chauvinist environment for a very long time (the Czech Republic) and then spent a lot of time in another (Spain), I have to say that barely a day goes by, still, when I don’t say at some point ‘it wouldn’t have happened’ or ‘they wouldn’t have said it', 'if I was a man’, and that, I have to say, gets a bit irksome.  And whilst we are now (in Europe at least) getting used to having women Presidents, politicians, heads of companies and so on, I do still think that it is a lot more difficult for women to get these roles than for men, because woman are still judged completely differently from their male counterparts… (see, now you know where I am going with all of this).

I could write a book about the way men treat women in the Czech Republic (oh wait.. I have!) but I could also write a book about the way that women treat men, and women treat women (I haven’t got around to that yet). Since day one I have lost count of the number of times I have heard that my company must be owned by someone else (a man), that my car must have been bought by my boyfriend, that I must have been sleeping with the boss of one of my biggest clients to have them as a client, that I should ‘put my handbag down’ when I have got cross about someone (a man) and said so, and even that I must have been making some money on the side to have worked so hard (for free), and that I must have been put up to it by someone else (ie. a man). God, it makes me seeth just to think about it.

In Spain, which had always appeared so modern in comparison to the CR, the chauvinism was less obvious, but once we started to spend more time there and had to deal more regularly with the Spanish, the same chauvinism became clear. Our bank, where we have a joint account, will not make any form of payment unless my partner confirms it, as he is, in their view, the ‘owner’ of the account – he, however, can do whatever he likes. When we have to deal with any sort of Spanish supplier (male), they will completely ignore me (and I mean completely; I usually say afterwards that I must have been wearing my invisible cloak) and only address him. In the restaurants the waiters will ask him to taste the wine even if it is for me, will give him the bill (same comment!) and so it continues.

Watching the lead-up to the US elections, I kept quiet about the fact that I was sure that Trump would win (not because that is what I wanted, God forbid, but no-one else around me would have agreed. I think I know only one person that supports Trump and most are so passionately against him that they would have been furious with me to even voice such an opinion).  And no, I am not saying that to be a smart-arse. But when I sat here contemplating why anyone would vote for a man as repulsive as Trump and be so against an intelligent women, whether or not she covered herself in glory in the lead-up campaign), I am afraid that I could only think that, when it came down to it, Trump would win, not because of any of Kamala’s policies, not because she is black, but because she is a woman.

It is no surprise to me that the Hispanics voted against her – as above – as though they hadn’t figured out that Trump is the guy that built the wall to keep the Mexicans out.  And I have seen too many examples of it not to know that a lot of women (not the intelligent, sensible women that you and I know and admire or are, but the others) don’t like to see a woman doing well (FFS). So I am sure a lot of them voted against her because, yes, she is a women. And then there are the rest – the big hot shots in the country clubs that want to protect their money, the idiots that wish they could be like Trump (womanising, making stupid jokes, doing dodgy deals, we all know a lot of them).  In the end, it is not really that surprising that the man won despite everything and the woman didn’t. It was, unfortunately, predictable.