This video blog on the BBC is quite illuminating.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-41502661/100-women-i-tran...
Firstly, the narrator is Transgendered and a PHD.
She talks about the monetary cost of being a woman in business today.
She puts it at $250K over a lifetime. (how much worse will it be for M2F transpeople?)
A key point to me is where she says that suddenly people stopped asking me Maths questions (because she was now presenting herself as a woman).
The ironic thing to me is that in the story that I am currently writing, I am using the 'if you are a woman, beautiful and blonde then you can't have a brain' idea that many men have to shape how one of the characters has changed herself to fit into the male business world. She also has a child which makes it even worse.
The video is part of the BBC's 100 women series of video shorts. If you can see them, many are really intersting especially to men.
Samantha
Comments
Assumptions
We have to make many, many assumptions about people to get through the day.
I live in a city and 90% of the people I interact with each day are complete strangers.
Even those I somewhat know . . . who knows?
The Vegas shooter's girlfriend claims she didn't know. I tend to believe her. (Either that are she's the village idiot and helped him plan sending $100,000 to her rather than making that transfer long before the event in small amounts. We have stringent gifting laws in the United States with regards to taxation.)
Trying to make proper assumptions is part of life. Stereotyping is part of that process.
I agree there is a line. Where that line is I don't know.
When I'm walking my dog late at night and am approached by a young black man I'm more on alert than I would be for a young white man . . . but only slightly so. Does that make me racist?
When looking for a nurturer I'd probably start with females. Does that make me a man-hater?
It's a tough call.
Jill
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
Extra expectations
Well, it is a different game, when you change. I realised, that in the beginning I tried to appear more docile than I am, in order to appear feminine. It didn't work in the environment I was in (high level professional Rock, sound equipment).
If I were a cis gender woman, I think today I'd be judged bossy, but I have managed to assume a natural authority in the topics I am good at, so now that is what I project. And let's be clear about this, women are better at science due to being able to multitask better (thanks, estrogen). And therefore, as I am experiencing with my protegée, women are the better programmers, for example, but they get put in second place most of the time, because the men are afraid of their natural superiority in the subject. Time for this society to wake up and start educating children differently, if as humans we want to survive.
With the ecological mess we got ourselves into we need all the intelligence we can get to make a future for our children, it is about time men started to develop that awareness, too. Again, as being the nurturing entity, women are more aware of it.
If you, as m2f transgender, have developed a professional life and stability, do not forget that you are role models for everyone, males and femaes alike. Be confident in your femininity and not afraid of being classed as bossy. Assertiveness has no gender!
Monique S