The Everyday Sexism Project exists to catalogue instances of sexism experienced on a day to day basis. They might be serious or minor, outrageously offensive or so niggling and normalised that you don’t even feel able to protest. Say as much or as little as you like, use your real name or a pseudonym – it’s up to you. By sharing your story you’re showing the world that sexism does exist, it is faced by women everyday and it is a valid problem to discuss.
If you prefer to e-mail me at laura@everydaysexism.com I can upload your story for you instead. Follow us on Twitter (and submit entries by tweet) at @EverydaySexism.
I was sexually assaulted at my Christmas party, when I reported it to my manager he took all my shifts away to keep me from working with my attacker. I left in the end and now I have no income and I see my attacker working around young girls and women. I’ve reported him 4 times and still waiting for a response.
I was at school, and some boys came to me and tricked me into doing a sexualised pose and sticking out my butt, disguising it as a handshake. It was only two months later until I realised the true nature of their actions
Hello there, I’m in middle of reading your book! I’m coming on 50 this year. I was married, have 4 kids,separated 8 years ago divorced 4 years coming on this year. Back in 2017 with my 3 children we had escaped from my abusive husband with a few bin liner bag of belongings to a safe house. Got a 115 years non harressment order and 115 years restriction order. My ex-husband not suppose to contact me direct or indirect and cannot enter our county. In the past 8 years I had lost counted how many times he had breached the orders. As I had been instructed by Women’s Aid support worker and the local police I had reported all incidents. Non had been forwarded to the Procurator Fiscal which over sees the local police work. Both organisations states non of the incidents are strong enough. Such as a personal GPS detector amd voice recorder sewn into my jacket. A GPS device put on my car. Text messages with quats from the bible where a woman leaves her husband and/or cheats on him worthy to be stoned to death. List is on and on. I do feel completely let down by the police and the Women’s Aid team. My ex is not been arrested as he suppose to be. Every day we living in fear for our life. Thanks for reading our story
There is a man at my office who I have liked for a very long time but never did anything about it as workplace relationships are frowned upon by our employer. At our Christmas night out we ended up kissing and I was delighted. It didn’t go further than this and I was so happy as I really liked him. I thought he might ask me on a date! The following week we were working late, alone, and he kissed me again, which I wanted him to. But this time he took his penis out of his trousers and asked me to touch it. When I said no he called me a tease. Eventually he got the message that I was not going to touch him and he put it away. I feel like I can’t report what happened as then I would have to explain that we were kissing in the office, which was initially consensual. He doesn’t speak to me any more now, and I still have to see him at work. It made me feel really cheap and not safe, as was scared that he wouldn’t take no for an answer. I thought I knew him and he would never make me feel like that. I feel stupid for misjudging him and the situation.
In a pub chatting to some people. I’m with friends. We’re talking to a small group of middle aged men next to us intermittently. One guy asks me what job I do. I say “guess”. His friend says, “high class prostitute”.
On LinkedIn, I listed myself as open to work. I have a doctorate from an Ivy League university and worked as a business research professional for a long time. Recently, I have acquired certificates in fields related to artificial intelligence and data analytics. Somehow, LinkedIn’s recommendation engine delivered an ad to me for their premium service that advertised only restaurant and hospitality industry jobs. Nothing else. Hundreds of them. It is perplexing because aside from a summer job in the 80s, I have never worked in hospitality. I trained for other things, so I guess their algorithm found that that’s what is available to highly educated women in our 50s, so it’s perpetuating that finding. I’ve been on LinkedIn for 20 years so they know exactly what I do and who I’m connected to.
Trivial example – In a Facebook discussion of a road junction I raised a question about why a filtration arrow sometimes appears as part of the traffic light cycle but at other times is omitted. A man completely ignored the point raised and proceeded to explain to me how filtration works and when I should stop or turn. From his profile picture, he was a child when I passed my driving test.
When I was 10/11, I had extremely painful periods. Of course, it was written off by my GP as worms and he also continued to prescribe me gastro soothe pills (they help with painful bowel movements). I was then later diagnosed with appendicitis (an ovarian cyst had burst and my appendix absorbed the fluid from it) and was taken in for surgery. The doctors discovered that I had endometriosis. All of the previous male doctors had told my mother that I was “too young” to have such pains and that it was impossible for someone so young to have endo (even though you can be born with it). Later that same year, I had a second surgery to remove the endo. My gynaecologist didn’t give a damn after being told many times that I was too young and she shouldn’t be operating. She had asked me “Do you want this surgery?” I said “Yes.” Anything to stop the pain. She operated. She got barred from working at that hospital ever again. She didn’t care. She had a stroke a few years later, stopping her work but she changed my life in so many ways. I owe my life now to her. On average it takes six years for women to be diagnosed with endo. It’s enraging.
As a software developer my work is constantly critiqued even though I know it is well written by tools running through the code. My male counterparts get immediate approvals no matter how badly written the code is. There is a male engineer on my team who never writes any code which is his primary job. I have no idea how he still has a job considering I have given feedback about his lack of work ethics No one questions his lack of outputs I am routinely talked over or talked down to
Down the road from my all girls school is an all boys school, the schools used to be quite intergrated ,with sixth formers going to the other school if that school was offering an extra lesson and whatever, but they had to stop it because of how disgusting the boys were being with rape threats and all that. Now on my way home from school I have to walk past these boys who catcall specifically me out of my friend group and make every day I have go from good to bad and I go home feeling disgusting. Me and my friends have tried reporting them and telling teachers, so have other girls apparently, but no one does anything. At one point a friend of mine threatened police action to the school because they had called me an “ugly fucking dyke” (and that’s apparently enough to tell the police but lord knows they don’t do anything either) because I had told them that they’re not funny. No one seems to do anything because of the teenage boy stereotype and it’s doing nothing but make me feel disgusted with myself every day. I’d go the long way home but I’m not letting them win.