15/04/2016
Sexism alive and well
"What would she know? She’s a girl"
Women in law and other dumb concepts
We all woke to the attached ad in the local paper. Our competitor asked:
“Have you ever wished an experienced lawyer would carry out your legal work instead of a girl in the office?”
Um. None taken.
Let's introduce ‘a girl’ or two from our office:
Bernie Gunders – having owned and operated her own family sporting goods and accounting businesses, and with practical expertise and on the job legal training spanning over a decade, Bernie’s professionalism is unrivalled. Though a girl, she offers measured, real world advice, collaborates with her colleagues (including girls), and maintains a strong relationship with all of her loyal clientele. Oh and she also raised two sets of twins. Wait, wait. Nope. Sorry she's a girl.
Sarah Smith – Bond university graduate, 7+ years’ experience in various areas of law, as both a trainee and a lawyer, also has a loyal and well serviced client base, not to mention a very hard working mum of two. Hang on a sec. Yep as we suspected, Sarah too, is in fact, a girl in the office.
Ok then let's see, Christine Kinnear: former member of our Royal Australian Navy, toured Iraq, currently raising two fine young boys of her own, helps maintain the family farming business as well as put herself through law school, soon to be admitted as a solicitor of the Supreme Court of Queensland. Bu**er. No good. She's a girl, and in the office also.
Melissa Wick – decades of experience in various industries, primarily involved in business marketing media and project management, having qualifications in project management and business analytics Wiki has consulted to Telstra project managing aspects of the NBN roll out in various major regional and metro areas, But, you guessed it, she’s a girl too. Curses!
Mel Cox – despite her gender, embarked on a paralegal career nearly 20 years ago. Now, as a 50% owner of PD Law, Mel is also the CEO. In addition to being a girl, in her spare time she's also studying for her masters of business administration (MBA). Whoa! Mel’s also a girl. Dang, of all the bad luck.
Foolishly, we employ more girls than just those mentioned here. And a couple of men too.
As was so eloquently stated by Dame Stephanie (‘Steve’) Shirley “you can always tell ambitious women by the shape of our heads: they’re flat on top from being patted patronisingly”.
