Acquisition of sleeping her way to the top
“If women could sleep their way to the top then there would be more women at the top”-Gloria Steinem
Women had a hard time proving their capacity to the world. Women who are our mothers, sisters, wives and friends do an amazing job taking care of us but it wasn’t easy for them to step out of the house and make a living and a career or even follow their passion because they were expected to stay home and take care of the family and lead the progeny. But when the leading ladies of our house decided to come out and step foot in the world of business and career to name and living for themselves, the society wasn’t very welcoming and they had face a lot of issues before making a place for themselves.
Although with changing times and advent of technology, a lot of things changed. The society is more receptive towards working women but still the crisis exists at some places. It becomes very difficult for our dear fathers, brothers, husbands and friends to have a woman as their superior at times and if the superior is younger to you, then it becomes all more difficult and when situation like these arrives, a lot blame acquisition game starts in the corporate world.
Reasons why men can’t accept women in a superior position than them:
Men have always enjoyed a superior position (in a company) thus bossing around seemed like their thing and although it may sound very harsh but their male ego just couldn’t take some women boss them around.
Because women are considered secondary and inferior as compared to males.
Women are considered less intelligent than males.
Women are not made for working in the outside world.
And when women go out take higher positions in any firm or company they have to face a lot of problems, whether be it from their homes or in the office itself like,
With a bigger position comes a bigger responsibility, and to fulfil those responsibilities you have to spend a lot of time in the office and it is often seen that the family members are against it, especially family members of married women.
If the woman is married and has kids, then she needs to manage her office work along with her child’s schedule.
After the problems at home is solved, they also have to face problems at office like criticism from male colleagues, non – fixed working hours, excessive work load and then lastly getting accused for things they have not done.
Women in work environment are expected to be meek and accept everything that is thrown their way, although it may seem that the times are changing and so is the work environment but that may not be the case everywhere.
Women are also considered weak and incompatible when it comes to work (all kinds of jobs included).
Now let’s have a look as to why are we talking about things like women empowerment, struggles of women at workplace and why men can’t accept women at positions higher than them. Well, I have a story to share, so read carefully.
Nikita (imaginary name) was the younger daughter of the house, adored by her parents and elder brother, she had a pretty much magical life until now. Nikita had recently completed her MBA after her under – grads in Humanities. And after her MBA, she pretty quickly got a job as a junior HR trainee in a multinational company, Nikita was happy and so was her family. Soon enough a year later she was promoted to the position of a senior HR trainee with an increase in her payment as well. This overjoyed the family members and even though Nikita had an elder brother, she was lucky to not face any discrimination at home.
And a year later she got an offer from another MNC for the position of vice HR General Manager with a hike of 20% from her current salary and this was a joyous occasion for Nikita as she finally would get a position which she had always dreamt of. So everything was going alright, what was to go wrong now? Let’s have a look what was go wrong now.
Nikita joined as the newly appointed vice HR General Manager at the company only to find out that the General Manager was her senior Rohit (imaginary name) from her MBA college and so her work went smoothly at office because both of them were well acquainted with each other and soon the rumours started in the office that it wasn’t possible for Nikita if she hadn’t known Rohit and maybe she might have had offered some favours to him for gaining the position of the vice HR General Manager. Nikita is quite shocked with everything that is going on and because she had never faced any such thing before in her life, it kind of traumatized her. And just like that she was accused of sleeping her way to the top.
And this very story of Nikita shows how the society still works, it becomes very difficult for men to believe that any woman might have got their position in a company because of her hard work and intelligence and not because of some sexual favours that she had offered to her senior to reach to that position. But you know what is even more sad that sometimes there are some women who also support their male counterparts in shaming their female colleagues because of jealousy.
Other than incidents where a woman is accused of sleeping her way to the top, in many cases she is also sexually harassed and expected to some sexual favours to their male seniors in return of a good position in the company or a hike in the salary or even for getting the job.
Reasons why women are expected to sleep her way through the top or sexually harassed or asked for sexual favours from their male counterparts or seniors:
Women are expected to be inferior to men thus men take it for granted that they will always say yes to their requests no matter what.
It is impossible for a woman to get a higher position without someone’s help.
Women are not intelligent and also incompatible at work as compared to their male counterparts, so they should offer something that they good at and then gain a higher position or salary.
Women are still OBJECTIFIED.
Women are expected to be meek, quiet and non – aggressive thus receprocative to any kind of situation.
The above mentioned statements are the reasons why even in 21st Century women are still objectified and often accused of sleeping their way to the top. They are never expected to gain their higher position in a company because of their hard work and dedication also their intelligence and mostly importantly because they deserve it. And the most sad that a woman can experience in such a situation is not receiving any support from her female colleagues, family or friends who would believe her and innocence and purity, instead along with the cruel society even her near and dear ones blame her.