A woman at work is not there for the minutes

Last week I wrote about the new cabinet, which for the first time in history consists of as many women as men, and I was inundated with positive reactions. So many people recognizing how bizarre it really is that women and men are still not treated equally at work – I found that heartwarming.

And so I got the idea to ask women on Twitter what would help them in their work to reduce the inequality between the sexes. I got so many answers that were already given in the sixties (!) that it seemed useful to me to make a ‘feminism for dummies’. To hang by the coffee machine if you ever go back to the office. Only for dummies though! You already know this of course.

1 A lot of people may now fall off their chairs, but women are not there at work for the coffee, the minutes, the dishwasher or sending flowers or birthday cards. Really, men can do this too! You will be amazed.

2 Women want the same pay for the same work. In 2020, the ‘unexplained’ gender pay gap 4 percent in government and 7 percent in business. Get rid of it.

3 Stop met stereotyperen. Feminine qualities do not exist, neither do masculine qualities – those are human qualities. Men can also be sharp, empathetic, inexperienced, sociable and hysterical; like women, decisive, competent, arrogant and promising.

If a woman (you) tells the truth, she’s not immediately bitchy, emotional or a bitch, and you can still have a beer with her. We only use the word ‘career woman’ if we also start using the term ‘career man’.

4 Women With Expertise Or Ambitions Aren’t ‘Bossy’, but just have, uh, professional knowledge and ambitions. Women therefore do not need to have their own field explained at drinks, Twitter, conferences and meetings.

5 You can safely take the opinion or advice of a female expert. You do not have to have it confirmed by a male expert first.

6 And while we’re on the subject of experts: if you as a man are asked to sit on a panel or at a talk show table with only men, then refuse your cooperation. Done with it.

7 Women like to finish their sentence, rather than being interrupted. Also in that respect they are just men. It helps if a man occasionally says during a meeting: “Good point, Hanke”, or: “Let Sigrid finish it, Wopke” (names chosen at random).

8 When a woman says you’re crossing a line with a joke or commentThen shut up for five minutes. Delicious.

9 Research shows that if more women join a profession, its status goes down, as does the salary. Nice if that stops.

10 Stop asking if she’s going to work less if a colleague is pregnant. As a manager, stop asking if she wants (even more) children. Or if you really want to ask, ask (future) fathers as well.

11 When women take their children to daycare four days or more a week and you disapprove of this, then give not only the mother, but also the father the same disapproving look.

12 That a woman has a deep cleavage, does not mean that you can feel it or put a hand on her buttock, Jeroen, Evert and Albert (names not chosen randomly).

13 It would help if you could also be the boss with good work, competence and modesty and not all with machismo, chatter, a cock, aggression, dominant behavior and useless profiling.

14 If parents have indicated the father as the first point of contact at school or daycare, then also call the father in the event of a calamity or lice and not the mother again.

15 Nope. Women are not ‘handier’ ​​at taking care of children or with other unexpected things at home than men, as I sometimes hear people say. In fact, if you have a hotshot at work, you are certainly at home!

16 Equal parental leave for women and men. So that fathers and mothers gain equal experience with the care of their children and employers get used to the fact that it is not always the woman who solves everything.

I also received many suggestions from working women about childcare. That childcare should be free, for example, or that sports, music and swimming are offered during school so that they no longer have to drive their children from one place to another, but I didn’t understand that. Because how is that typical for women? Good care and the driving of children seems equally important to me and a task for fathers, right? Anyway.

Next week I’ll ask men what they need to be treated more equally at work!

Very curious.

How was your week? Tips for Japke-d. Bouma via @Japked on Twitter.