Since I'm wearing a more casual dress today, I wanted to describe an incident that happened to me earlier this week. I met Chapin for a Valentine's Day lunch on Monday at C&S Seafood & Oyster Bar. The restaurant is located in Buckhead, a more upscale part of town where trophy wives and soccer moms are, I guess, more the norm than working professional women. I arrived ahead of Chapin, and as the host was seating me, I mentioned that my husband would be arriving shortly, but he was running a few minutes late. The host commented, "Well, someone has to work." Then he walked away. It was one of those times when the words didn't quite sink in at first, and when they did, I was left seething. Like today, I was dressed more casually, but still: Why assume I didn't work?
Although women have made so many leaps and bounds in the professional world, there are still clearly many hurdles left to overcome. I'm at a VP level now in my career, after working hard to get my MBA while working full-time, but I can still walk into a restaurant and be dismissed so casually like that. I can't express just how angry and sad that made me. I hate wearing suits, but maybe this is my wake-up call that my wardrobe -- and possibly my haircut? -- needs to become more masculine. I just hate to think that I have to dress like a man to be taken seriously.
