Feminist Fight Club

An Office Survival Manual (for a Sexist Workplace)

Harper Wave, 2016

15 min read

10 take-aways

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How women can thrive in a male-dominated corporate world.

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Workplace sexism has become harder to identify, yet it remains a daily factor. It can take the form of a man assuming his female colleague will take the notes in a meeting, or a co-worker insinuating that you’re a corporate liability because you have children or might have children in the future. Sexism holds women back as they launch and pursue their careers. Journalist Jessica Bennett shares valuable lessons she and her colleagues learned as women navigating the workplace, whether they were in the male-dominated offices at Newsweek or standing by the ping-pong table at Tumblr. Bennett’s irreverently funny manual will empower any woman who’s wondered why her male counterparts are moving up more quickly than she is. getAbstract recommends Bennett’s study as a required set of instructions for shattering the glass ceiling.

Summary

The Importance of Allies

Sexism in today’s workplace isn’t always overt, yet it’s insidious. True, women today are graduating from college and earning advanced degrees in higher numbers than their male peers. But they still face a wage gap – even in their first year out of college.

They are still a quarter as likely to negotiate a raise, no matter their race or ethnicity. They still fill just a small fraction of leadership roles across virtually every industry, from business to law to politics, and continue to face both institutionalized and internalized sexism that generations had long fought against – only now it’s subtler.

Identifying the Workplace Enemy

To prepare for office engagement “Feminist Fight Club” style, you must understand the enemy. And that person typically has a name, such as the “Manterrupter,” who interrupts you while you’re speaking, the “Bropropriator,” who steals your ideas (or takes credit for them), or the “Stenographuck,” who mistakes you for the office secretary (or asks you to take on that person’s role). These behaviors can be combated with the right tools:

To deal with a manterrupter...

About the Author

Award-winning journalist Jessica Bennett is a contributing writer at The New York Times and a founding editor of Sheryl Sandberg’s nonprofit LeanIn.Org. She has spoken about gender equality at leading businesses and academic institutions, including Facebook, Google, McKinsey, Harvard Business School, and the US Military Academy at West Point. She’s in a real-life feminist fight club.

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V. M. 5 years ago

The author is clearly fixated on his topic should be easier to accept life in all its manifestations. The desire of the author to fit all the same under the same nonsense absurdity. Although I do not encourage everyone to agree with my opinion because so many people have so many opinions
Y. A. 5 years ago

The "Overcoming Self Sabotage" section is a must-read! I saw myself in a lot of those points.

Jessica Bennett