16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence
Sonja TERPSTRA (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (13:37): The campaign for 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence has begun. The campaign is to help build communities where women are safe and equal, and it all starts with respect. Let me count the 16 ways I have experienced sexism and disrespect in my workplace, some in recent times and some in not so recent times: (1) being talked over in meetings by men; (2) on complaining about sexist behaviour, being told, ‘Let’s just get through this;’ (3) less experienced or knowledgeable male colleagues raising an idea as their own that moments ago you just raised; (4) being excluded from group discussions by less experienced male colleagues; (5) men reminding you about being part of a team, only to exclude you or ostracise you or ignore you, or being bullied by incompetent men; (6) being the target of character assassination campaigns, lies and mistruths; (7) male colleagues being bystanders and not calling out disrespectful behaviour by others; (8) being victim-blamed; (9) being thrown under a bus and to have less experienced and qualified male colleagues promoted; (10) being gaslit; (11) being sexually harassed more than once; (12) having archaic rules used against you to silence you when calling out sexist, tone-deaf, juvenile and puerile behaviour; (13) ignoring your decades of experience, qualifications and expertise due to fragile egos; (14) toxic microaggressions and passive aggressive actions; (15) overt acts of toxicity like being told you are irrelevant; and (16) to the women who enable it, your actions are visible to us all. It all starts and ends with respect. This is something that this workplace lacks, and it needs to be called out.