Solo Flyer

barbarajacobson·Jul 26, 2021

Posted in:Vents

Just curious how you all deal with being the only female/femme/womyn in meetings. As someone who looks young and is in a pretty aged, male-dominated field, this is nothing new (alas), but lately it's gotten worse with pre-defined gender roles in meetings (even when I am more senior than some of my male-identifying collegues), implict biases creep up.

Any advice from fellow solo flyers in meetings and beyond would be greatly apprecated.

emily8·Jul 27, 2021

Sorry this is happening 😞 I also work in a male-dominated industry. What kinds of things are you experiencing in these meetings?

Aileen·Jul 29, 2021

Hi Barbara. Sorry you get to experience this. I’m interested to see the responds. My daily team meeting is myself and up to 6 men…. In other meeting I’m regularly the only woman…. I haven’t found it to be an issue though. Maybe it’s due to being in the company longer than the rest of my team, though I’m the youngest bar one.. In the larger team, there’s maybe 30% F/ 70% M…. For the most part, gender doesn’t come into it - especially when we’re all remote…. In the office it’s only when there’s equipment to be moved, or opening doors, that there’s any acknowledgment that I’m different… though the lads mind each other too and wouldn’t let our eldest colleague do heavy lifting. Maybe I’m missing something… but I’ve been looking out for issues for the past few years…. I haven’t noticed anything untoward - other than it’s difficult to find women to join us…. No applicants in the past few rounds of openings….