How do you navigate a world that feels like it is entirely designed against women without giving up?

18 comments

1. Defiantly. By learning to cage the misogynistic arsehole in my brain who tells me I must be attractive to men at all times, must be smooth and hairless, must not take up too much space, or speak too loudly; I try my best to cage that little demon up in my mind and not listen to it. Learn to do what you want to do, and be what you want to be.

2. Keep an open mind and don’t let AH voices of sad misogynists bring you down. There are a lot of beautiful things in the world. People may say “women can’t this” and “women shouldn’t do that”, but they cannot stop you. Find your way and keep your eyes on your goals. In the end, you will be the better and stronger person, while the sad AHs still sulk in their twisted rhetoric.

   Keep on and have a wonderful time!

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4. I would say, by looking beyond your assumptions that it’s designed against women. Because in reality it’s not. There are certain aspects that are designed for men and certain aspects that are designed for women. Learning your advantages really helps to overcome obstacles.

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6. I don’t think the world is designed against women.

   Life is hard for almost everyone.

   And, as far as modern times go, we live in a good era to be a woman.

   We’re all just doing our best to navigate life.

7. Get up. Strap my boots on. And out perform every single one of the men I work with.

8. As this thread has shown you’re gonna get mixed feelings on how the world is designed and whether you’re at an advantage or disadvantage. So my first piece of advice is not to be too open about such thoughts, unfortunately, and instead feel situations out and observe the dynamics in whichever area of life you feel things are stacked against you and pick out people or opportunities that challenge problematic norms subtly.

9. I won’t claim to speak for other places, but in the southern US that is simply not my experience.
   The company I work for is mostly run by women. The Board of directors is more than half women.
   My direct supervisor is a woman, her supervisor is a woman as well.

   My daughter is in college and most of her professors are women. Something like 65% of the student body is female.

10. The only thing keeping you from doing anything you want is you.

11. That is not how I feel about the world. There’s hard aspects and things that suck a lot, but I don’t feel the world is against me.

12. Lipstick.

    I lean into my strengths as a woman and leverage them at every opportunity. I don’t play games I don’t have a chance of winning.

13. There are times through my 5.5 decades I have felt your question so fully.
    I’m a mom to boys and saw their experiences vs mine and was somewhat saddened at times with things that continued to be present, but then encouraged by some of the progress I noted.

    I am a high performer in a male dominated niche within a male dominated LOB and I often feel I’m still clawing my way up a wall while men take the stairs. But thankfully much of what I do is evidence based and so the playing field levels as I know the legislation and regulations from which we are designing solutions. But each new group leader makes me steel myself until I figure out if they can simply take me at my word/recognize my position or am I proving my worth and intelligence to their satisfaction before they will get behind my plans.

    But then there are times when I’m glad to be a woman and enjoy some benefits that come with being a woman.

    It can be hard, but I also remember how far we have come, too.

    When I started my career I could be fired for being pregnant. Heck, they were allowed to ask me if I was planning on having a baby in the job interview! Zero job protection when I went out to have a baby. Now there is FMLA and it goes beyond a baby, which is wonderful for everyone.

    I make every effort to find the good …

14. Many things are designed for men, but not everything. Girls and women are being consulted about things more and more. When they redesigned the toilets and changing rooms at school they asked us what we wanted. Of course some suggestions were either silly or they wouldn’t do, but we got several individual changing cubicles and more lockable toilet stalls which the boys didn’t.

15. You could look up some statistics about suicide, jailtime, likeliness of being a victim of violence, access to therapie and the declining chances of men in education. As to offset the statistics that you might be more familiar with. It’s not a fight between men and woman. It’s a fight between people that would like to prolong harmfull stereotypes and those who would like to live in a better world. A lot of statistics led me to believe that there is still more gender equality to be gained by focusing on woman’s rights but it’s more nuanced than your question proposes. I wish you well navigating this complicated world!

16. Team up with like minded women and lean on and learn from each other to change this world order.
    There are female networking groups that can help you with this.
    Don’t be discouraged by hearing and reading that there are women who don’t believe what you wrote and they haven’t had that experience.

17. We learn how to outsmart them around 40 lol. You figure out the game a little too late, but it’s still time to change it.

18. By being very very stubborn. By surrounding myself with people who remind me of my strengths and support me through hard times. Always remember what you want, why you are working towards it etc. There will always be a way.