Men Need Not Apply

Two of my friends have given me the nickname: “Disgruntled of Surrey”. They claim that I like to moan about things which resembles the ramblings of a Guardian reader. I, however, believe this to be an inaccurate portrayal of my character. First, I am not from Surrey (though that, I am told, is beside the point.). Most importantly, though I may like to have a grumble from time to time, on the whole I am not generally a disgruntled person. I may, dare I say, border on the line of being described as optimistic.

However, a recent event in my life has given me cause for grievance. And I do not think illegitimately so. I recently went for an interview for a part-time administrative role at a growing and busy company. I dressed up smartly; best tie and clean shirt. I turned up early, brimming with enthusiasm and ready for whatever the interviewer was going to ask. But I did not expect what was to come. Thirty minutes later, having been shown around the office and given a short induction by one of the female (yes, this does become important) employees, we came to the end of the interview. Admittedly, I was feeling quite optimistic; then came a shock from the blue. The (again female) interviewer said that she was actually intending to hire a female because ‘they tend to be more bubbly’. In her defence, she did quickly apologise and suggest she talk to her manager regarding roles which I assume she thought appealed to a more masculine nature: a job which was more analytical and less constrained to working under pressure. However, by this time the punch line had already been given.

My initial reaction to this was one of surprise. Then a little disgust: after all, it was less than a hundred years ago we (men) emancipated them (women) with the vote and now look what they are doing! But no, seriously, when I later came to think about it I felt genuinely aggrieved and insulted. The problem is that before now I have never felt discriminated against. We live in a society where being male, white and perceived as being heterosexual almost guarantees non-discrimination. This is not to say that stereotypes and perceptions do not exist; these, I think, are obviously present in all walks of life in our society and may even be an inherent part of human nature. But my point is that I have never before been told that I am unsuitable for a position I have applied to because I am a man. Historically the XY chromosome has always been favoured. As a consequence I had no concept of how this may feel. To put it another way, I have always been an insider. To me, it was an utter insult. Yet this woman was perfectly nice about it. She was not saying that, as a man, I was an inadequate and degenerate sub-species, undeserving and unqualified for certain opportunities in life. It was not a case of a porter slamming the door in my face, me picking up an advert which simply stated that “Men Need Not Apply” or walking past a restaurant which had the sign “Blacks Only” pinned to its front door. I was merely been told by an inexperienced interviewer that her preference was for females because they, in her mind, tended to be able to cope with the office job she was offering. She was not being ‘anti-male’, or even anti-patriarchal.

Yet I felt affronted and a little disgusted by this woman’s mild and friendly comments regarding the inadequacies of my gender. In some way I felt my self-worth questioned. We read narratives with what has happened to groups in the past and unfortunately how people are still discriminated against today. We have seen in vivid colour the marches and protests from the USA in the 1960s. We read passionate speeches about the injustices of such actions and we agree with them. We turn our noses at any form of suggestion that we may live in a society where such active prejudices still occur. We argue about whether books from the past – from a racist, misogynist and homophobic world – which encouraged such segregation and exclusion ought to be published, let alone taught in schools. And this, of course, is quite rightly so. But because most of us here, I assume, have never experienced any form of real discrimination we fail to have any real concept of how such acts actually felt for the people involved. Of course I am not suggesting that my experience was anything on par with the emotions of anger, hurt, humiliation and disgust felt and expressed by those individuals I have briefly described above. Nor am I suggesting that I now feel somehow closer to such people, or can comprehend what they went through, and what so many people in so many parts of the world go through today. This would be truly insulting. I was not actually being discriminated against. However, my short and fleeting experience gave me an uncomfortable feeling and, to use the old cliché, food for thought at the disgraceful way that society often treated its members (or, perhaps, those who co-exist in that society) for nothing other than the facts of nature which none of us can be accounted for.

What I have written above may not seem very original or revolutionary: for most of us the immorality of inequalities based on gender, race, sexuality and so on is accepted as fact. But I found my reaction to the interview surprising and thought-provoking. For a split second I felt like an outsider. Only, of course, I never have been and probably never will be. ‘Disgruntled of Surrey’ may not be quite the appropriate term to use against me yet, but at least I have the potential to be!

Author: Arthur Reeves

Tags: career, job interview, sexism

Category: Politics