I don’t want to play the gender card, but…

I’m a 27-year-old Western European woman with a Masters degree and a job that I can count myself lucky to have. I like Disney songs and Zelda, speak four languages and have lived in three countries. I think I’ve done everything right so far when it comes to grooming my CV. The bachelor’s degree in journalism and history of ideas, the Masters’ degree from a prestigious university, the internships and finally the first job.

That first job that barely paid my rent and bills, but I thought that this was the way it was. It was normal that a male colleague, not much older than I, was earning 40K when I was earning 22K. It was down to experience, surely.

Well. I’m now at my second job with a permanent contract, and I’m still earning less than my male counterpart.

There are times where I feel like I’m pushing against a heavy door that seems so easy to open to others. There are times where I don’t feel that I should say anything in a meeting, until I have all the facts straight, and if I say something, I apologize for speaking up. It frustrates me, I frustrate me.

People (male colleagues) often say to me and other female colleagues that we should just we should just “run with it”, and “own it”. “It” being our work selves; projects, meetings, presentations. Negotiations. We should not complain about being paid less, because surely there are reasons, like market value, or different negotiations that took place ahead of taking the job. Reasons that sound so logical it’s hard to fight them. It’s not easy storming up to HR and tell them they should make things right, and the reason they are wrong is because of unconscious bias. A bias that no one would ever admit to, yet which controls most of our behaviour and decision-making, according to Nobel prize winner Daniel Kahneman.

Here’s a good introductory read on how we can make less biased decisions.

The goal with this blog is to speak about something that I know so many other women are feeling, especially women who are just entering the work force, but don’t want to talk about.

So I hate to play the gender card, but we should totally talk about it.