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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.
Sometimes women are harder on one another
One female supervisor told me not to speak with anyone more senior to me without her permission or outside her presence. When I started dating someone at work who was senior to me, I had to tell her. On another occasion this same female supervisor came into my office after a meeting and accused me of taking notes from the meeting. When I pointed out to her that I left the meeting before it ended she turned pale white. Once it was discovered that the cleaning staff had accidentally taken the notes on the easel and destroyed them she still blamed me.