Martin R Schneider, current editor of Front Row Central, shared a couple of tweets a few days ago about how a casual experiment helped him understand the sexism women face in the workplace.
Martin and his colleague Nicole Pieri used to share an inbox. He noticed that he was getting rather rude replies from clients. When he discovered the reason behind the cold behaviour, he was stunned.
So one day I'm emailing a client back-and-forth about his resume and he is just being IMPOSSIBLE. Rude, dismissive, ignoring my questions.
— Martin R. Schneider (@SchneidRemarks) March 9, 2017
Anyway I was getting sick of his shit when I noticed something.
— Martin R. Schneider (@SchneidRemarks) March 9, 2017
Thanks to our shared inbox, I'd been signing all communications as "Nicole"
It was Nicole he was being rude to, not me. So out of curiosity I said "Hey this is Martin, I'm taking over this project for Nicole."
— Martin R. Schneider (@SchneidRemarks) March 9, 2017
IMMEDIATE IMPROVEMENT. Positive reception, thanking me for suggestions, responds promptly, saying "great questions!" Became a model client.
— Martin R. Schneider (@SchneidRemarks) March 9, 2017
They decided to an experiment. Martin signed all his emails with Nicole’s name and vice versa. The results were not pleasant. Clients were condescending to ‘Nicole’ and someone even asked if she was single. Whereas, Nicole as Martin was not having a tough time at all.
Nicole had the most productive week of her career.
— Martin R. Schneider (@SchneidRemarks) March 9, 2017
I realized the reason she took longer is bc she had to convince clients to respect her.
By the time she could get clients to accept that she knew what she was doing, I could get halfway through another client.
— Martin R. Schneider (@SchneidRemarks) March 9, 2017
I wasn't any better at the job than she was, I just had this invisible advantage.
— Martin R. Schneider (@SchneidRemarks) March 9, 2017
Here's the real fucked-up thing: For me, this was shocking. For her, she was USED to it. She just figured it was part of her job.
— Martin R. Schneider (@SchneidRemarks) March 9, 2017
Also read: More Allegations of Sexual Harassment Against TVF’s Arunabh Kumar