suit

Suzannah

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6 years ago when I was on my way into London to go to a work experience placement I spilt coffee on the shirt I was wearing. Wanting to make a good impression I had dressed smartly for the occasion. Being aware of time, I decided that when my train got into St Pancras I would quickly nip into the Marks and Spencer’s (where I had a vague idea they sold clothes towards the back). There were at least 6 different coloured shirts in an aray of sizes… Alas these were all mens shirts and being a (smaller than average) 16 year old girl at the time, the coffee stained top would have probably looked better. I was glad that they had stocked full lacey lingerie instead though! I was really angry about this at the time and said to myself that I would write to Marks and Spencer’s to complain. I was only just reminded when I went into the same M and S yesterday to buy some socks… Disappointing that there are still no womens shirts (any workwear), lots of mens stuff however and still loads of lingerie. (I managed to get a linen shirt “for holidays” from nearby accessories- if you walk around St P, you’ll probably notice it’s VERY difficult to get anything for working women but VERY easy to get stuff for working men). 🙂

Sarah

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Two recent examples of Every Day Sexism: I walk into Next and ask where the suits are (OK, so not everyone has to wear suits to work nowadays, but some of use do) and they direct me to the men’s department! Can understand why the young, female shop assistant is confused as the men’s department has 20 different suits and the women’s only 2. But honestly, do I look like a man? Or is the assumption that I would only be buying a suit for a man? And, Next, please stock more women’s suits – you used to have loads. Secondly, I ring a company about managed ‘executive’ accommodation when working away from home. The guy on the phone says that that they are all men in the building, except one woman, who is the family nanny. When I say I work in IT He says “Do you work on the helpdesk?” “No,” I tell him, “I work as a senior analyst programmer.” OK, so only one out of 10 IT workers are women, and that’s bad enough, but the assumption seems to be that the women who do work in IT must of course work on the Helpdesk. He can stick his executive accommodation.