WHEN AWARD-WINNING journalist Jessica Bennett published her saucy Feminist Fight Club: An Office Survival Manual (For a Sexist Workplace) in September 2016, it seemed reasonable to suggest “recognizing sexism is harder than it once was.”
That was before then-presidential candidate Donald Trump claimed in one debate that his rival Hillary Clinton didn’t have the presidential “look” and called her a “nasty woman” in another, and before the leak of a 2005 tape in which Trump boasted of grabbing women’s genitals, which he defended as “locker room talk.”
But blatant sexism doesn’t cancel out the less-obvious forms. Bennett addresses a variety of modern workplace scenarios—from fighting to get a word in edgewise and negotiating equal pay and maternity leave to naming and confronting sexual harassment—with statistical evidence and creative strategies. The latter run from the subtle yet assertive “I have another idea to throw out” in response to male dismissal or interruption to the more overt “Are you her tampon?” when a man asks if a co-worker is on her period.
Like many Gen-Xers who came of age after the feminist revolution, Bennett’s awakening was gradual. She started her career as a Newsweek reporter in 2005. Until she got there, she knew nothing of the 46 female Newsweek employees who, decades earlier, successfully sued over gender discrimination when they found they had been hired as researchers for male reporters on grounds that “women don’t write.”
In the years and jobs that followed, Bennett and her female colleagues noticed that men not only made more money and rose in the ranks more quickly, they had an easier time creating prestigious job titles, landing comfier desks, and taking credit for ideas—including those of their female peers.
“Like the micro-aggressions that people of color endure daily—racism masked as subtle insults or dismissals—today’s sexism is insidious, casual, politically correct, even friendly,” she writes.
In 2009 Bennett and a group of female colleagues founded a secret Feminist Fight Club to air grievances and strategize responses. Discussing their salaries empowered them to know how to ask for what they felt they deserved; identifying negative stereotypes of women as bossy, emotional nags who talk too much was a start to thinking about everything from body language to linguistics. This included conundrums such as being criticized for not smiling but not being taken seriously if one smiled too much.
They cut words like “just” and “really” from their vocabulary to sound more assertive and less chatty (although studies show men actually talk more than women in the workplace). They encouraged each other to own compliments by saying “thank you,” instead of “it was really no big deal” or “I got really lucky.”
She notes that encouraging aware male colleagues to join women in intercepting men who are “manterrupters” when they interrupt female colleagues not only restores the woman’s right to speak, it also builds coworker solidarity between men and women. Plus, the more coworkers join in this struggle, the more aware they’ll become of how women of color and members of the LGBT community suffer from even greater levels of workplace discrimination.
Bennett’s reframing of the WWJD slogan is hilariously empowering: Afraid to assert yourself? Worried you’re not worthy? Just ask “What Would Josh Do?” says Bennett, “Josh” being the metaphorical mediocre white male employee who never seems to lose sleep over whether he’s talented, hard-working, or likeable enough to ask for something.
In addition to lessons learned from her fight club, Bennett draws inspiration from legendary feminists such as civil rights leader and Member of Congress Eleanor Holmes Norton, who led the Newsweek lawsuit, as well as from thought leaders such as Sheryl Sandberg, author of the 2013 best-seller Lean In: Women, Work, and The Will to Lead, and Rebecca Solnit, author of Men Explain Things to Me.
Since reading Feminist Fight Club, I have been inspired to join Facebook discussions of female professionals looking to get and give modern advice. Feeling more powerful already!
Julienne Gage is a Miami-based journalist who investigates economic development in the U.S. and Caribbean.
Got something to say about what you're reading? We value your feedback!