[Disclaimer: This article contains, among other things, testimonials about sexism and sexual harassment]
March 8 is International women’s day. International Women’s Day is a time to reflect on progress made, to call for change and to celebrate acts of courage and determination by ordinary women, who have played an extraordinary role in the history of their countries and communities.
For Makerist, this is an important day and one that we love to contribute to amplify the voice of the feminist cause and focus on the things we want to see changed in the world in which we operate.
Women represent 81% of the Makerist team, 75% of our managers and 99% of our creators, partners and clients. We think that women creating a supportive, nurturing and safe community for each other is what International Women’s Day is all about.
For international women’s day, some of our colleagues share their experiences as women in everyday working life. They share their positive and inspiring experiences, but also share experiences of discrimination and sexism in the job and make it clear that there is still a long way to go towards full equality for all people, including women and not binary, gender-diverse people.
Thank you to our amazing Makerist colleagues, for your openness and for sharing your personal experiences with our community!
Interview with Meli
Can you share a positive experience from everyday working life with us that you had as a woman at Makerist or in a previous professional environment?
I feel safe at Makerist, safer than in other companies. I think we allow people to speak out and we let them share their ideas. Thus, I can be myself. I’m proud to work for a company with so many women around. Because we’ve lived similar experiences, we may share our thoughts about feminism or start new projects around common values without being scared of any bad reaction. I think that feeling listened and understood leads to more creativity and willingness to do more at work. I think Makerist considers inclusivity as an important topic and will always be willing to work on this topic (about gender topics or other related topics).
Could you share a negative experience in a professional environment that you’ve had as a woman?
I was called “Miss” or “Sweetie” several times in my previous professional environment, and I don’t think that’s okay. I could also talk about other negative experiences I’ve had that are even more negative, such as an open sexist conversation in a meeting or the fact that an executive was very tactless and invasive with me during my first job after high school but I would like to speak of an even more insidious – and therefore difficult to fight – example. The “Miss” word is uttered by many men in companies.
I am often told that it’s not a big deal, that it’s warm and nice, that I shouldn’t see evil everywhere, but for me, it’s really annoying to hear this all the time. They infantilize women while at the same time we work harder to be taken seriously for our work and what we bring into the professional environment. To everyone who thinks “Missy” is a nice word in a company: I don’t think that’s okay. I would always prefer to be called by my name. In the professional environment, I expect a conversation from adult to adult and a gender-specific nickname has no place in a company, especially because it usually only goes in one direction. This nickname annoys me in all professional situations: when it is said in a meeting with many men, or when you’ve just arrived at a company and already feel invisible. I don’t want people to talk to me in a special way because I’m young, because I’m a woman, or for any other reason. I don’t think there is a word like that for men in a business setting, and I think that’s something to bring up. The same goes for other sexist nicknames, of course.
Could you make any recommendation on how the work environment could be more inclusive for women but also gender diverse people?
I think that people should try to listen to each other more. Accepting that other people are living other experiences, listening when someone is speaking about a situation they’ve lived and not act as if you would know everything. It’s not because we’ve never lived an experience or because we don’t see ourselves with another identity, that they don’t exist. Everyone should be listened to and represented, also in the professionnal environment. When someone talks about their feelings about a situation that was problematic, especially an overwhelming situation about their gender, you need to listen to this person and think about how you could help or improve your own behaviour. It’s really difficult to know if we’ll be mocked, that a debate will be created if we say that such a situation is not right. I’ve personally let sexist comments happened because I didn’t have enough courage at this moment. I knew nobody would listen to me and that people would laugh at me and thought I was the annoying one, so I didn’t say anything. This kind of event is happening quite a lot because the atmosphere is not safe for everyone – and then it’s the opposite of open-minded management. In the professional environment, we have to deal with a lot of people, experiences and different identities. We have to deal with these differences. From my side, the inclusivity efforts of a company are more than important and a selective way for me to choose to work there or not.
Interview with Debby
Can you share a positive experience from everyday working life with us that you had as a woman at Makerist or in a previous professional environment?
The General work atmosphere, a lot of inspiring and empowering people around, the number of women working in the company is amazing, and the effort of switching to a gender-neutral language.
Could you share a negative experience in a professional environment that you’ve had as a woman?
Back in the day, when I worked in restaurants to finance my studies, there were definitely a lot of customers that approached me in an inappropriate way. One of the regular customers kept telling me I remind him of this pretty girl from the show Mamma Mia and from then on called me Amanda as the actress Amanda Seyfried played the role. Back then I laughed about it, but it was really intimidating and awkward.
Could you make any recommendation on how the work environment could be more inclusive for women but also gender diverse people?
Bringing up the effort to switch into a gender-neutral language, because the power of speech is real and a good first step into gender equality, avoiding salary differences because of gender, support trainings in order to learn and reflect on privileges, sexism, gender, racism.
Interview with Holly
Can you share a positive experience from everyday working life with us that you had as a woman at Makerist or in a previous professional environment?
In a previous company, I worked closely with the female CEO in my day-to-day activities. This was such an empowering experience and she imparted a lot of wisdom on how to navigate the often male-dominated worlds of tech startups and seed funding, as well as general marketing mentorship.
Could you share a negative experience in a professional environment that you’ve had as a woman?
In a previous role in another tech startup the ratio of men to women was approximately 8:1, which made for a much less comfortable-feeling work environment. It also mean that in staff meetings the expectation was for me to perform in a more typically ‘male’ way in order to be heard (continue talking when interrupted, interject my thoughts by loudly announcing them to the group, etc.). Additionally, I and another childless female teammate were often asked to look after coworkers children when they were brought into the office, despite there being a number of other colleagues who had children of their own and would be more qualified to child-mind.
Could you make any recommendation on how the work environment could be more inclusive for women but also gender diverse people?
One of the most useful ways is for management to think of and then model tolerant & inclusive practices BEFORE employees ask about these policies. This can be as simple as putting up office decorations for pride or acknowledging Black History Month, for example.
Interview with Sarah
Can you share a positive experience from everyday working life with us that you had as a woman at Makerist or in a previous professional environment?
Makerist quickly gave me responsibilities despite my young age. I was really motivated and full of ambition and my team lead helped me to manage my first team, invited me to workshops dedicated to managers and helped me in all the steps of my new experience. I felt supported and appreciated. Makerist is mostly composed of women (managers or not) and I felt no sexism when I took my position – it should be normal everywhere but I don’t know how it would have been in another company.
Could you share a negative experience in a professional environment that you’ve had as a woman?
During one of my first internships, the first days were awful, I was about to quit after 4 days only. I’m thinking now about two experiences. The first one was my first day, I was young, in a different country – the first meeting in the morning was about ongoing projects and I felt invisible. My manager didn’t introduce me to the team or to any topic. I’m not asking for a long introduction, few words would have been enough! I didn’t feel welcomed. I was one of the only women in the team. The second example: after few difficult weeks, I took a slightly longer lunch break than usual. My manager told me it shouldn’t happen again in a really brutal way. Of course, it happened that I had to stay late at night but then, he never asked me to leave. I felt as a child who has been punished. These two experiences may not look like direct sexism but I see in both examples a masculine domination.
Could you make any recommendation on how the work environment could be more inclusive for women but also gender diverse people?
For me, it’s really important that women are having more jobs with leading responsibilities and more represented at the directing board of a company. Thus, it’s all the kid’s education and then the student’s education which needs to change and of course the school system to stop orienting kids to a specific job or some specific studies because of their gender (engineering for boys…). To start with, some women and non-binary examples of managing people should be highlighted to create role models, to inspire and empower people to change. Another recommendation would be to strengthen the punishment for all type of sexism in a company. For still a lot of people, it’s a banal or even trivial act and they don’t see how dangerous it is.
Interview with Christie
Can you share a positive experience from everyday working life with us that you had as a woman at Makerist or in a previous professional environment?
I had a very positive experience when I worked in a bank. Many of my colleagues were women. There was a great team spirit. I still see them sometimes.
Could you share a negative experience in a professional environment that you’ve had as a woman?
I worked as an intern in a company. One of my colleagues made an inappropriate comment about my (basic) shirt. Another person told me to take it as a joke. I don’t know if it is because everybody found his behaviour normal or if they were just used to it… but no one reacted. I felt lonely like never before at work.
Could you make any recommendation on how the work environment could be more inclusive for women but also gender diverse people?
It is a very simple statement, but I think that a work environment is inclusive when the company is composed of diverse and several open-minded people.
Interview with Catherine
Can you share a positive experience from everyday working life with us that you had as a woman at Makerist or in a previous professional environment?
I think that Makerist is the company where I felt the most at ease and the safest, especially as a woman. There is kindness, support, trust (we may quickly have a job with responsibilities) and everyone is listening to each other, especially regarding inclusivity.
Could you share a negative experience in a professional environment that you’ve had as a woman?
I’ve had some sexist comments like “she probably has her periods” or “you should wear sexy dresses more often”
Could you make any recommendation on how the work environment could be more inclusive for women but also gender diverse people?
We should listen to each other and then act. We should give some space to speak up to people who are the first victims, “educate” ourselves and “educate” the other employees.
Interview with Lu
Can you share a positive experience from everyday working life with us that you had as a woman at Makerist or in a previous professional environment?
At Makerist as well as in one of my previous working environments, I generally experienced a lot of positive moments. I benefited from managers and team leads who were and still are really empowering, sharing their knowledge, appreciation and influence. I cherish the constant exchange of feminist thoughts within the team and the mutual support instead of resentment. During the past years, I found a bunch of role models who are inspiring and encouraging me and who want to dismantle patriarchy as much as I do. What I enjoy most are open communication and solidarity among each other.
Could you share a negative experience in a professional environment that you’ve had as a woman?
Here’s a negative experience I once had in a professional environment: in a meeting with an external partner, we were a group of people looking through photo examples on a website, talking about the photographic style of the images. One of the men being part of the meeting commented inappropriately on one of the model’s physical appearance, stating that “the woman on the photo was not his type”. This sexist comment absolutely objectified the woman in the photo and degraded her to existing just to please others with her outer look. I stated that it doesn’t have anything to do with the meeting’s topic which women he regards as attractive and that it doesn’t have any relevance for the topic we were discussing, but I still wish I said more directly and explicitly how sexist and unprofessional his behaviour was. What would have helped me in that situation was if more of the other meeting members had addressed their own disapproval of his stupid comment. Incidents as this just prove how far we are still away from an equal society absent from sexism. As long as people regard such a behaviour as normal and don’t have to fear criticism and exclusion when stating misogynist comments, there is still a lot to do.
Could you make any recommendation on how the work environment could be more inclusive for women but also gender diverse people?
We constantly need to raise awareness of the importance of feminism. As long as people of all genders, including non-binary genders, are not equal, we need feminism. Therefore, we need to recognize the different lived experiences and intersectional identities of all people. In order to make the working environment more inclusive for all genders, at first, language needs to be made more inclusive and gender neutral so that every person feels represented. Further steps are including diversity and feminist behaviour into the core values of a company and to developing a culture of allyship. Creating an inclusive culture has to be lived and enforced by the leadership team in order to have the necessary resources at hand and in order to align on the topic company-wide.
