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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.
I Have No Problems Working for a Woman
- Workplace Unfairness
- Female
- Caucasian
- Information Technology/Internet
- Non-Profit
- Communication Styles
- Double Standards
When I joined an IT start-up, I was the only woman at any of the management meetings. And I wasn't afraid to say no to something if I thought it was a bad idea for the company. Apparently, this made people afraid of me. The CEO refused to communicate directly with me. He would ask other people about the type of work my team members could or could not do. Someone asked him why he didn't just ask me directly and he replied that he was afraid of me. Was he afraid of me because of my personality? If I had been a man and acted the same way, would he have responded similarly? Another time, we had an open senior developer position and when I made an offer to a male candidate, he said, "I want you to know, I have no problems working for a woman." He made such a point to say it.