Posted on 12/04/2018 7:16:36 AM PST by SeekAndFind
On Wall Street, many men have adopted Vice President Mike Pence's sage advice: avoid having dinner alone with any woman not your wife. There are other changes in behavior with female co-workers as well: don't sit next to them on flights, book hotel rooms on separate floors, and avoid one-on-one meetings.
And never close your office door when meeting with a female.
It's not just Wall Street, of course. The changes are affecting businesses nationwide in every industry.
Across Wall Street, men are adopting controversial strategies for the #MeToo era and, in the process, making life even harder for women.
Call it the Pence Effect, after U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, who has said he avoids dining alone with any woman other than his wife. In finance, the overarching impact can be, in essence, gender segregation.
Interviews with more than 30 senior executives suggest many are spooked by #MeToo and struggling to cope. “It’s creating a sense of walking on eggshells,” said David Bahnsen, a former managing director at Morgan Stanley who’s now an independent adviser overseeing more than $1.5 billion.
"Walking on eggshells" should be the phrase of the decade. On college campuses, white males are forced to be extremely -- even pathologically -- sensitive about what they say about race, gender, sex, gays, and any other subject the anti-free speech crowd sees fit to target them for. You can't write or talk about race anywhere in America unless you first accept your white privilege, and then proceed to embrace the assumptions of race of activists as a starting point. Not doing so automatically brands you as a "racist."
There are consequences to "walking on eggshells," the most prominent being a stifling conformity of thought, a deadening of intellectual curiosity, and fear.
The #MeToo movement, now a year old, is having a dramatic effect on women in the workplace. They may have drastically reduced sexual harassment -- a good thing in and of itself -- but at what cost?
Now, more than a year into the #MeToo movement -- with its devastating revelations of harassment and abuse in Hollywood, Silicon Valley and beyond -- Wall Street risks becoming more of a boy’s club, rather than less of one.
“Women are grasping for ideas on how to deal with it, because it is affecting our careers,” said Karen Elinski, president of the Financial Women’s Association and a senior vice president at Wells Fargo & Co. “It’s a real loss.”
The practical, down-to-earth, real-world effect of #MeToo has been tragically ironic:
The changes can be subtle but insidious, with a woman, say, excluded from casual after-work drinks, leaving male colleagues to bond, or having what should be a private meeting with a boss with the door left wide open.
In this charged environment, the question is how the response to #MeToo might actually end up hurting women’s progress. Given the male dominance in Wall Street’s top jobs, one of the most pressing consequences for women is the loss of male mentors who can help them climb the ladder.
“There aren’t enough women in senior positions to bring along the next generation all by themselves,” said Lisa Kaufman, chief executive officer of LaSalle Securities. “Advancement typically requires that someone at a senior level knows your work, gives you opportunities and is willing to champion you within the firm. It’s hard for a relationship like that to develop if the senior person is unwilling to spend one-on-one time with a more junior person.”
Men have to step up, she said, and “not let fear be a barrier.”So is this a good strategy for men? Give women the cold shoulder and run away if they smile at you? An employment attorney on Wall Street says, “If men avoid working or traveling with women alone, or stop mentoring women for fear of being accused of sexual harassment, those men are going to back out of a sexual harassment complaint and right into a sex discrimination complaint.”
Those with the naive belief that treating women with respect and dignity in the workplace will be an ironclad shield against harassment or sexual assault claims are dreaming. While you should treat all women in and out of the workplace respectfully, #MeToo is not about that, or about protecting women. The movement is about the raw exercise of the power to shame, to destroy lives and careers, and to change the fundamental dynamic in male-female interpersonal relations in and out of the workplace.
In some ways, this is a good and necessary thing. But the potential for misunderstandings and false claims of harassment or assault where companies have a hair-trigger to pull against male workers makes the #MeToo movement problematic, at best, for women in the workplace.
i learned this a looonnnggg time ago (20+ years ago)...i was joking around about something and some old hag came up and stated she though i was s”inappropriate” in what i said.. meanwhile this hag used to refer to me as “young fellow””
since then i keep my mouth shut- people at the company i worked at for 32 years think i am unfriendly but i don’t care- i do my job and keep my mouth shut....
Gee, it appears to me many women these days dress to show as much of their “private parts” as possible without getting arrested for public nudity and yet get offend when men noticed that. Just who are they trying to impress...other women?
Men Now “Walking on eggshells”?.......No they aren’t. They will totally ignore the women and the women will be worse off than they were before.
The only ones ‘Walking on Eggshells’ will be the millenial girly soyboys.............
It is not surprising that so many job interviews are by phone now.
That’s exactly what will happen. Men will isolate themselves, totally ignore the women and women will not be hired because of the possibility of lawsuits and such, thus making women’s lib a farce.................
Men dress to impress women.
Women dress to impress other women.................
I never did.
Of course that may be why I'm now living alone in a hovel.
I always assumed some women dressed that way for the one man in the office they wanted to notice them. Everyone else had just better keep their eyes and comments to themselves.
Ya think????????????...............
I cannot follow the logic of the following: “ The movement is about the raw exercise of the power to shame, to destroy lives and careers, and to change the fundamental dynamic in male-female interpersonal relations in and out of the workplace.
In some ways, this is a good and necessary thing.”
No, it’s a bad thing. period.
Many companies know who the bad actors are and just sweep them under the rug. Just like the Catholic Church nothing will happen until the whole building Is burning to the ground. Feminists overplayed this one. If you are female in a male dominant industry you are done.If you work for a company that is ignoring a perv it is a sinking ship save yourself.
Women never lie about sex.
and
Believe the survivors.
This is why civility, etiquette, and honor are no longer enough.
Translation: be a strong toxic male - but only when convenient for me (read my mind).
This backlash isn't caused because people are afraid to engage in harassment. It's because they are afraid to engage in any behavior at all because some overly sensitive brittle female can say she felt targeted or uncomfortable and thats enough to ruin your career. Then the woman will post a "you go girl" post on facebook about how strong she is for taking you down and suddenly your an internet monster from coast to coast. Because you did something like say good morning and smile but it was really a microaggression.
So it's not ending bad behavior anymore. It's breeding an environment of fear. Ironically what it was supposed to be getting rid of, only now it's okay because it's the patriarchy that's scared.
As mentioned in a previous post most people still refer to “#” as Pound sign. Therefor the name #METOO seems inappropriate as a name for a woman’s group.
Bingo
“While you should treat all women in and out of the workplace respectfully, #MeToo is not about that, or about protecting women. The movement is about the raw exercise of the power to shame, to destroy lives and careers, and to change the fundamental dynamic in male-female interpersonal relations in and out of the workplace.”
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I worked for years (20) in a male-dominated work environment. I expected respect from them and I got it & gave it in return. I also thanked them for opening doors, shared some great conversations where I could easily have become ‘offended’ if I were thin-skinned, and achieved a high level of success/position in the organization. Men and women ARE different - they communicate differently and I found that out early - I chose to appreciate those differences rather than try to change them (i.e. the men). There were occasions where I had to stand up for myself and land a few “punches”, but while the guys were surprised a woman would do that, they were not only surprised, but impressed. With the exception of one guy (who was worse for wear when I got through with him), it was a great experience. To those #metoo womyn who are “b!tching” about the way men are now ‘walking on eggshells’ I say this:
SELF-INFLICTED & you deserve what you’re getting - unfortunately, you are ruining it for all women, but then again, that is what you Progressives do ... eventually ruin/poison everything for everyone.
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