I cast a pretty wide net when it comes to articles I feature here. I’m not averse to featuring something that’s interesting but with only a loose connection to femdom. This one, entitled ‘The insane double standard for women working in tech‘ is a good case in point.
It highlights a study that found that in performance reviews men get assessed on their actions, where women get assessed on their personality. In 83 reviews of men, just 2 highlighted personality issues, where out of 94 for women, an amazing 71 did. As you might expect, the personality issues highlighted for women were all the usual ones about tone: You’re too pushy, too aggressive, too abrasive. The kind of characteristics that countless men in the workplace display every day of their lives without issue.
I’m not going to try and equate being an effective and forceful worker with dominance. That would be foolish. Sexual preferences are very different to work attitudes, and the goal here is equality of treatment, not the right D/s label. But I think it’s an interesting example of the broader cultural perceptions at work. Society is comfortable with the classic dominatrix trope, as it’s typically perceived as a sexual roleplay targeted for the benefit of men. Yet put a forceful opinionated women in a software company, along with a 100 forceful opinionated guys, and then suddenly people have a problem.
I realize with this image I’m not really helping and I’m continuing to play into the dominatrix trope. Unfortunately, on the tumblrs I frequent, it’s tricky to find a shot of a sensibly dressed female software developer making a solid argument for the design of her database schema. So sexy dominatrix boss it has to be.
