Madam, – With regard to Sarah Carey’s article (Opinion, July 16th) and Sarah Moriarty’s response (July 20th). I have been working in a business environment, in Ireland and also for stretches on continental Europe and the US, for the past 10 years; I am 34 years old. I have never in my life encountered a place of work where women were excluded, where women’s chances of promotion were less than men’s chances or where the atmosphere was overtly male (or female). Also, I can’t think of any woman I’ve ever worked with who would seriously describe the workplace as a scary “macho testosterone-fuelled” sphere.
The fact is that this view of the workplace is, for the most part, happily out of date. Men don’t congregate to snigger sexist-ly about their co-workers, instead both sexes congregate to exchange gossip, grievances and of course to complain about their bosses. The era of the male-only golf outing has been replaced by the era of the company mixed-tag rugby team.
Whereas Ms Moriarty’s world where the image of the workplace has to be “deconstructed” on an ongoing basis is simply out of date, Sarah Carey’s world where women can afford to exchange work and creches for stay-at-home motherhood and their hobbies is completely fantastical for all but an extremely privileged few. – Yours, etc,