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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.
His Exact Words
- Workplace Unfairness
- Female
- Caucasian
- Lesbian
- Oil/Energy/Natural Resources
- Left & is now Self-Employed
- Personal Care & Service
- Discrimination
- Double Standards
- Marriage
- Office Politics
- Promotion
- Unbelievable
I ended up being more slowly promoted than a coworker. I was a better performer, brought in more money, supervised people better. But it was the good old boys' club and I was a woman. I really do think that, had I had a husband, I might have been taken more seriously. The first opportunity I had to get promoted at my job, my co-worker had gone to our boss and told her, "Oh, I want to get married and I need more money so I need to get promoted." I later found a note on my desk that said the boss's boss's boss wanted to meet with me. I thought he was going to say, because I was next in line, we're going to promote you this afternoon. Instead, he said, "We're going to promote Kevin," who started after I did, had less education, performed less well. I said, "Why?" and he said, "Because he is getting married." And then he gave some more lame excuses. "You are just less sophisticated," he said. Those are the words he used. I was stunned and then half an hour later I had to sit through this promotion where everyone was toasting champagne while I was sitting there feeling so discriminated against.