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Vote on Desiree Davidson's Story
Were they afraid we were planning a coup d'etat?
I spent my first summer during Columbia Law School at a firm in Philadelphia described as one of the best places in the city for black lawyers. I believed that if there was any place where I would have an equal chance at opportunities, be treated fairly and succeed, this would be it. There were three black female summer associates out of sixty that year but any time all three of us were in an office talking, one of the partners would knock on the door to see how we were doing. It happened too often to be a coincidence that sometimes we would purposely agree to meet in so-and-so's office to test our theory that we were being monitored. Like clock work, ten minutes after we would get together a partner would stop by.
Kelly Kiehl's Experiences
Another female colleague and I looked around the brokerage house we worked at and realized the department was being run by men but the two of us were the most educated of the group.
One of my male colleagues would consistently forget to tell me that meetings were cancelled. I would have a three-hour commute to certain meetings and find out once I got there that it was cancelled.
One female supervisor told me not to speak with anyone more senior to me without her permission or outside her presence.