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

Chapter 1: Bad Boss

Chapter 2: Chain of Command

Chapter 3: Resistance

Chapter 4: Discovery

Chapter 5: Immediate Improvement

Chapter 6: Yeah. A lot.

Chapter 7: Hell

Chapter 8: Head-start

Chapter 9: Invisible Advantage

Chapter 10: Used to It

Chapter 11: Took it in Stride

Epilogue

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.