Wonder Women Face Palm Moments

I live in the world of Wonder Women. They surround me. I literally cannot move without bumping into one. In the office, in the meetings with my partners or agencies. Every room I walk into (physical or virtual, professional or private) is filled with them. They inspire me, I learn from them, I love their energy. At the same time I meet every day great men who equally thrive in this environment. Who are comfortable with the Wonder Women, partner with them, without feeling threatened. But this week yet again I had to look beyond the fog surrounding Wonder Woman island and realize how far we are from this utopia. And it did not take much. Just couple of coffees with the Wonder Women and each of those meetings ending with an epic facepalm...

Facepalm One.

A Wonder Woman, high rank in her entered the coffee shop visibly frustrated. 'Sorry, I am quite annoyed.' 'What happened?' 'I just had the worst meeting ever. I was shouted at by my peer. We disagreed about something during a meeting. At one point he started yelling at me. I told him firmly no to talk to me this way and that we can discuss it calmly. And in return he responded that there is no reason for me to get emotional. Can you imagine. He totally flipped at me and I am called the emotional one...'

Yea, I can. The never-ending story of angry or hysterical women in the corporate environment. People can walk on you, but the moment you stand up for yourself, you are labeled as 'emotional' faster than you manage to finish the sentence. Let's not even start about the stereotypes of women of color in this context, that could turn into a whole book...

Facepalm Two.

Social gathering. I just met this Wonder Woman, but it took me less than 5 minutes to figure out that she's a smart and fierce. She works for a media agency. How is the business going, I ask. 'Good', she said, 'but today I almost lost it on a client meeting. When I finished my presentation, he told me that if I was tall and blonde, he'd give me this contract without a question. But since I look as I do, we will have to negotiate.' 'Are you joking?!' shouted all the ladies at the table at once, which was followed by multiple versions of 'Is this still happening?!' Then there was simple silence and a quiet question from one of the other Wonder Woman 'Did it ever stop?'

Facepalm Three.

I meet a girl who works in sales and was scared to go to a meeting with client, as he is always making sexual remarks about her. 'I dress down as much as I can. I wear grey, loose pants and blouse, I make sure I show off my wedding ring and always mention my husband in the small talk, to make sure he understands I am not interested. But he is persistent and says things openly in front of my manager and colleagues.' 'And what do they say?' 'They make jokes at me, my boss refused to assign this client to someone else, as he says it is good for the business that the guy is hooked on me. I can't stand it, I think of living my job, but the market is hard... I thank God that in the pandemic times at least all the business diners and corporate trips are over, as I can't imagine what would be happening then...'

Facepalm Four.

Senior business leader telling me how she was invited to give a speech on an event about women empowerment. At first, she was interested in the event, as she heard about it before. But after she showed initial interest, the organizers informed her that in order for her to speak, her company would have to sponsor the event. 'It is first time I heard about such a thing. I guess they have to make the even happen somehow, rent the conference room, etc. so they ask for contribution from sponsors and that's how recruit the speakers. It does not square for me though, people who are invited as speakers should be the ones who have something to say about the topic, you can find sponsors still... either way, doesn't matter what I think, as the corporate policy of my company does not allow this, we are not paying for participation of our people as speakers in external events. So I refused politely with that reason. However, what happened next quite surprised me. The guy, who is the organizer came back to me with a whole long email, mansplaining to me how much I don't understand his business model and how silly of me to refuse. I was quite in a shock, the man who is projecting himself as a women supporter came out as a bully. I did not answer his messages anymore.'

The Epic Facepalm.

I was browsing through social media minding my own business, when I came across the post about the Campaign Middle East Media Power List.

Campaign Middle East - THE MENA POWER LIST 2021 by Motivate Media Group - Issuu

Campaign Middle East describes itself as 'the authority for the marketing and communications industry in the region. It provides essential and market-leading coverage of advertising, media, marketing, PR, events and experiential, digital, the wider creative industries and more.' With all that expertise, you'd think they would know at least one women in the region to put on the Media Power List in 2021? (I know at least 30, as this is the number at which I stopped counting) Wrong. No woman made it to the list. Clearly once they released the list, it has raised a lot of eye brows and caused a lot of angry coverage to be posted on linked ins of the world. They addressed all those questions with an interesting statement published also in the intro to the list. It says:

'There are no women in the list, and it's a shame. It's an embarrassment to the industry that so few top spots are taken by women.'

It's true. There are yet not enough women in the top positions in media in Middle East. But the number is significant enough to secure at least couple of spots in the top of this list. Apparently, those women live too on the Wonder Women island, invisible for the editors. Honestly, such an excuse makes you part of the problem, not part of the solution...

Here we are, the week has passed and I only got more angry every day, with every personal story I heard, realizing how constant fight it is for the women to keep reconfirming their worth, fighting with internal and external perceptions, going against the 'boys clubs' of the world and the power abuse in the business environment. We are clearly not where I personally hoped we'd be by now, after so many years of discussions, some of them very loud and public, the journey towards equality is far from over.

I am no big media outlet, but I will do something they should. I will put my own list. As of now, every week I will feature a powerful woman that has inspired me, taught me something and deserves a recognition. And I encourage all who have the same view on equality to do it. Be the part of solution. Give space and credit to the women who deserve it.