There seem to be three types of people in this world when it comes to matters of sexism and social discrimination generally.

  • There are those who recognize its ubiquity and dedicate much of their energy combating it.
  • Then there are those who seem hellbent on denying its existence in any form, no matter how much evidence is brought to their attention.
  • Finally, there’s the group I think I fit into most of the time. The guys (and let’s be honest, it is mostly guys) who 100% believe that discrimination is real and needs to be addressed, but who rarely understand the extent of the problem, because we just haven’t seen it in action as much as others have.

This story is a great illustrator of how eye opening it can be to get a clearer perspective on what discrimination is like.  Martin R. Schneider (whose LinkedIn profile lists him as a “People-First HR Strategist, OD Practitioner, and Career Coach,” posted a long and very revealing Twitter thread about the time he stumbled into a “workplace sexism experiment.”

The results were incredible.

Preface

https://twitter.com/SchneidRemarks/status/839910253680553988

Chapter 1: Bad Boss

https://twitter.com/SchneidRemarks/status/839911261588566017

Chapter 2: Chain of Command

https://twitter.com/SchneidRemarks/status/839912016236142592

Chapter 3: Resistance

https://twitter.com/SchneidRemarks/status/839912736666632193

Chapter 4: Discovery

https://twitter.com/SchneidRemarks/status/839913165735485441

Chapter 5: Immediate Improvement

https://twitter.com/SchneidRemarks/status/839913863596343297

Chapter 6: Yeah. A lot.

https://twitter.com/SchneidRemarks/status/839914366757646337

Chapter 7: Hell

https://twitter.com/SchneidRemarks/status/839915081269981184

Chapter 8: Head-start

https://twitter.com/SchneidRemarks/status/839915987411533824

Chapter 9: Invisible Advantage

https://twitter.com/SchneidRemarks/status/839916949597474816

Chapter 10: Used to It

https://twitter.com/SchneidRemarks/status/839917707080368132

Chapter 11: Took it in Stride

https://twitter.com/SchneidRemarks/status/839918408611336193

Epilogue

https://twitter.com/SchneidRemarks/status/839932165030825984

Response: She Coulda Told You

Response: Rude is the Norm

Depending on which of the three groups you belong to (the ones I mentioned up top), you’re either not even slightly surprised, resentfully refusing to believe this is true because it doesn’t jive with your worldview, or, like me, you’re just a little surprised, and a lot disappointed. We gotta do better than this.

Have you had experiences like this?

Share them with us in the comments.