Back when I was a licensed civil engineer, I was shading engineering plans with colored pencils to delineate different construction materials for an estimate. A senior project manager walked by and said, "nice job, you’re going to make a great mom someday.” Turning my work into playing and coloring. I was offended but said nothing.  What could I have done differently? I would encourage women now to speak up. If you have a good relationship with the manager, offset it with humor, "I don’t understand how that’s funny or complimentary but you're part of THAT generation.” Or more directly, “That’s not an appropriate comment because you wouldn't say that to a man.” On the more serious side, go ahead and report it to HR. Your company on a whole would benefit from diversity training. You’re probably asking why go to those lengths so quickly? Because so many of these small micro-aggressions happen and we wonder why there are not more women in higher level and C-suite positions. These subtle and constant backhanded compliments get delivered to women all the time. 

 

Want answers? Send your questions, comments and thoughts about life to universe@thelinlife.com

 

Thank you so much for listening to The Lin Life Universe. I hope you’ve been enjoying it. Please leave a review!