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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.
Double-edged situation
- Workplace Unfairness
- Female
- African-American
- Banking - Retail
- Left & is now Self-Employed
- Arts/Entertainment/Media
- Bad Boss
- Taking Credit
- Uncredited Work
- Underutilized
When I left the second financial services firm, I had a doubled-edged situation. My numbers were so high that they couldn't deny that. I wrote a report and my boss said to me, "You wrote this?" She was surprised that I could do it. At the time I had a Masters degree. I thought, "How is this woman lobbying on my behalf?" On one side, she wants me to keep doing my work because it's making her look good. On the other side, she can't accept that I'm doing good work. I would never go work for a corporation again. I don't think you could pay me enough.