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Invited piece by blogger Carina Sitkus (The Curious Cat Project) We’ve all read the stats about how many women are (or aren’t) in leadership roles across pretty much every sector. Sure, we’ve made progress, but the C-Suite is still predominantly filled with men, and the gender pay gap is still, well, a gap. (You go, J-Law… and everyone who came before you!) Shared just last week, Elle UK made these sad realities tangible by Photoshopping all the men out of important pictures. The end result was pretty shocking.  You can see more of the images by watching Elle’s video below. TLDW: Not a whole lot of women are around when important decisions are going down. As is usually the case with posts and videos like this, people end up posting some pretty infuriating statements. Let’s start with a not-so-bad one, courtesy of the Youtube comments… PacificRimNZ My Response: I was a teacher and also formerly worked at a network of K-12 schools. Most of the elementary school teachers were women, but you could find more men at the middle and high school levels. I agree something isn’t right here, but not in the same way PacificRimNZ thinks about it. The under-representation of men in female-dominated industries is, in fact, a product of the same problem evident in Elle’s Photoshopped photos. Less men enter elementary teaching because, well, it requires teaching very young children — you know, a woman’s job. I hope you know I’m being sarcastic. Please, please, men, become elementary school teachers! There are many school districts and organizations that are looking for (and actively recruiting) you. Before you ask, yes, this was another real comment: Wrath Oranos My Response When I was in college I was, essentially, a mosquito exterminator in the summers. The job came with hip waders and a face mask. On any given day you might find me walking through a swamp, hauling tires out of mud to throw in the back of a truck, and clearing brush. In my third or fourth summer working there, “new guy” was hired, and he ended up supervising one of our projects. I went out with two or three other guys on the job and was ready to hop into a stream in my hip waders to help the others, when “new guy” told me not to. What did he want me to do instead? Take pictures. Luckily, a (male) coworker who had worked with me in the past set him straight and said I could do anything the guys could, but when I think back on that I can still feel my blood boil. I don’t want to assume, but the mentality “new guy” had is probably the same as the commenter above —expecting me (no telling me!) to stay pretty while simultaneously making digs about my inability to get dirty. Talk about a double standard. But there are many things wrong with Wrath Oranos’s statement. You know, about Gender Studies being a “USELESS FUCKING DEGREE,” and the sentiment that women should “stick to whining professionally.” We clearly still have a lot of work to do. Bravo to Elle for painting (Photoshopping) that picture. This was Post #2 of the Equal Rights Week on Carrie Speaking. 
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