EY Gives Seminars About How To ‘Fix Women’, And It Is The Most Ridiculous Thing You’ll Come Across On The Internet Today!

EY Gives Seminars About How To ‘Fix Women’, And It Is The Most Ridiculous Thing You’ll Come Across On The Internet Today!

Before I decided to be a writer, I was working for one of the Big Fours in the world as an auditor. I know. And one of the main reasons for me to make that switch from audit to content, was not just my undying love for the written word, but also the patriarchal working environment that it offered to its female employees. ‘Female’ being of prime importance here (oh the irony). Of course, not having been the kind who spits in the plate they eat out of, I never really got around to bad mouth the company for its many flaws. But with the recent round of controversies floating around EY’s extremely sexist seminars, I believe it is time to let the cat out of the bag.

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Now, it is no surprise that EY is one of the mostly highly ranked companies in the corporate culture for its Audit practices. Well prejudice aside, it does in fact grill you hard and give you the kind of exposure you’d need for a good foothold in the field. But for a woman, it doesn’t come without consequence. For most of my time that I was there, I constantly felt pressurised to be extra-cautious about my conduct and my words around my seniors, especially if they were male, with complying to all of what they say being my most important KRA. And while I had my doubts on whether I was gauging the situation correctly, all my doubts are now cleared after having read about the kind of seminars EY has been conducting to ‘Fix Women’.

In what has been quite a nasty yet not entirely unbelievable revelation for all of us, certain documents and papers from the actual sessions of the seminar were circulated on social media, and believe us you, they do not paint a pretty picture for them. Not unless pretty is the same as sexist.

Though the purpose of the training session was to guide employees on achieving their goals, it rather came across as a rule book of Dos and Don’ts for women working in a patriarchal company, EY being one of them. The session spoke about the kind of behaviour women must keep a check on, to not come across as aggressive or threatening to men or even being outspoken. The training hit a new low with every tweet that was shared on its detail.

https://twitter.com/KatieHnida/status/1186628361075879936?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1186628361075879936&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.scoopwhoop.com%2Fnews%2Fe-y-conducted-a-training-seminar-to-fix-women-in-a-male-dominated-workspace-cuz-it-s-21st-century%2F

In fact, there was also a list describing the kind of ‘feminine’ and ‘masculine’ traits that are usually present in men and women and there were no guesses as to what traits would fall under which category. While ‘feminine traits’ carried words like ‘tender’, ‘yielding’, ‘eager to soothe harsh feelings’, the ‘masculine’ side of the list read out qualities like ‘acts as a leader’, ‘ambitious’, and ‘willing to take risks’. The point here is pretty evident.

And this is coming from one of the leading finance companies in the world, with lacs of employees across the globe. The company is not just encouraging but also training employees to comply with such sexist, misogynist and absolutely ridiculous stereotypes. Endorsing gender bias is not just unethical but also reverses the progress women have made towards establishing equality in professional space. Discouraging short hemlines and plunging necklines is still understandable because you have a dress code. But derogatorily assessing women on such choices is unacceptable on every level.

In a time, when empowering women needs to be a concern to talk about and not talked down about, we have such global companies setting yet another example of the very imminent gender bias and sexism that exists. Maybe now people would stop denying the reality and actually do something about it. Because it is not the ‘women’ who need fixing here, it is the men who think they can tame women into obedient cats. It’s time you realise you’ve poked your hand in a lioness’s den, and she is not sleeping anymore.

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Sadhika Sehgal

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