Vote on Desiree Davidson's Story
Were They Afraid We Were Planning a Coup D'etat?
I spent my first summer during Columbia Law School at a firm in Philadelphia described as one of the best places in the city for black lawyers. I believed that if there was any place where I would have an equal chance at opportunities, be treated fairly and succeed, this would be it. There were three black female summer associates out of sixty that year but any time all three of us were in an office talking, one of the partners would knock on the door to see how we were doing.
Wendy Craft's Experience
When I finally got hired, I had to meet with the administrator and the first thing she said was, "I hear that you don't wear dresses." And I said, "Is there a problem with that? Is there some sort of dress code?" And I looked around and all of the other women there were wearing slacks.
I got to work in lots of different departments at the bank. I got to incorporate domestic partner benefits. I helped start a lesbian work group and was co-chair of that for a number of years. I ended
I woke up at 45 and asked myself, "You know, you never asked me if I liked these rules." I don't like working this many hours per week. There were a number of things in my life that I wanted to explore that I didn't have time to do.
Mine is a complicated story. I had been a math teacher for 5 years, got into high tech next, at a financial software company which was #2 in the market, great company. The industry was booming, every year I would get a promotion and get more money, I was climbing and initially I was a programmer but pretty soon I realized that I was "too extroverted" to sit at a computer.
When the company was bought out, there was a culture change and there were a lot more silly rules. For example, I had people who worked for me on the road. They were elites at the time who were constantly going out to put out fires.
Every year they were having conferences and depending on the level you were, you get certain privileges when traveling to conferences. So I was a director, and being a director or above, you get a single room.
The last few years at the company, I didn't want to go any further up, I didn't want my boss' job and I didn't want my boss' boss' job. It just wasn't interesting to me. And then when they merged us, it was a bloodbath.
My last straw came when they took this guy who was sort of my counterpart who was pretty incompetent and they made him my boss. So that, in combination with the fact that I could get a severance package, was convincing.
I was a lesbian poster child at work. People would call me and ask, "We are having this affirmative action committee, do you want to be on it?" I'd ask, "Who are you and how do you know who I am?" I w