- Hunting (or "huntin'", more often)
- Fishin'
- College Football
- Women
Given that I'm neither a hunter nor a quarterback, I've been slow to pick up on the business lingo of this particular breed - not to mention their super-human restroom resistance. I confess that I'm innately, subconsciously more silent around their ilk. I'm forced to remind myself never to apologize and to speak up. I haven't quite figured out how I'm to fit into this world yet, or frankly, if I'm entirely welcome in it.
Before you start cowering under your seats, fearful of a Pretty Feminist rant, let me reassure you - I bear absolutely no ill will towards the great majority of these men.* I've now worked for and amongst them for a few years. You could argue that I even married a kinda sorta version of them. More often than not, I just occasionally feel as if I'm a tourist in a delightful, strange land, lacking only a translator (and a hunting rifle).
*And certainly not men in general. Quite the fan. I'm not questioning the gender that brought us Beckham.
Yes, there is the increasingly rare subspecies of this native breed who questions why a Young Lady Such as Myself is in a corporate boardroom. Who mistake me for the receptionist. I've had a recruiter reassure me that I needn't worry about my job prospects, since I will be "quitting my job to have a family soon"; in actual fact, I can think of no better reason why I would quit a job, but . . . you wouldn't hear this from a California recruiter, put it that way.
Today was a special sort of Good Ol' Boy day, because there was actually another woman sitting there in the boardroom. I don't at all mean to say that merely because she was a woman, all was right with the world.
Rather, I was curious to see what happened - "Would the pre-business dialogue change?", I pondered. As it happens, the chat went on exactly as it usually does, covering the required Texas topics before digging into the deal. Only one of the principals talked around me.
I wonder, as I imagine professional women do everywhere, whether that isn't close to the ideal result; that we all just be treated as equally interested and capable. I left the meeting relatively happy, hopeful, and wondering. If we can get just a few more women in the room, maybe we can add "Nordstrom" to the pre-business conversation . . .
