Do you feel that everyone is getting too sensitive these days. I just feel many people are reading too much into everything or over analyzing especially when it comes to gender diversity cont'd.

The goal should absolutely not be to “strike a balance.” When the old way just ignored and left out any consideration for how marginalized people felt. People are not more sensitive today than they were before. People who have in the past felt unable to voice their concerns over speech that doesn’t include them feel more empowered to do so today. As a person who comes from a place of privilege (grew up upper middle class, white, heterosexual, etc), I’m more than happy to do a bit of extra work to sharpen my vocabulary and use words that are inclusive and make others feel welcome and comfortable having a voice. Take gender identity for example: Little things like putting your preferred pronouns on a name tag set a tone that others can and should do the same. At the end of the day, just call people what they want to be called, and if you aren’t sure ask. Whatever mild discomfort you feel in doing these little things is nothing compared to the discomfort they feel day in and day out living in a society that questions the validity of their identity.

My stance is usually assume good intent, and then educate. It bothers me when people are triggered by every little thing and so easily throw blame and labels around (you used the wrong pronoun, therefore you’re homophobic!) It creates an environment where people are afraid to speak their minds and then become more entrenched in their views because we’ve made them feel like the enemy. Leading to...our president 🙄

That’s not to say we should overlook the microaggressions and “small” things that may not be small to some people. For example, I’m Asian and it drives me nuts when I get asked “where are you from?”, i say “New Jersey” and I get “no but where are you really from?” I could easily get angry and label the person as racist but if I stop and think about it, and assume good intent, it’s probably more productive to explain why that question makes me uncomfortable.

Sometimes things are blatantly offensive and I’m all for calling that out. But I do feel like call-out culture has gotten a bit out of hand and counterproductive.

No. I don’t think people are reading too much into everything. People are waking up to just how bad things have been for a very long time. And female mgmt consultants in their 30s, 40s, and 50s in 2019 have a moral imperative to make things better in the workplace for women, minorities, LGBTQ.

Agree about striking a balance. We should be aware of the injustices that exist, and do our best to resolve them.

At the same time, we can’t spend all our time overthinking as it’s not productive and will just drive us crazy

I agree with you, OP. I feel that sometimes people are too quick to react and blame without understanding the facts or intent. It makes it very challenging to have meaningful conversations truly helping understand the issues, educate both sides and resolve in an impactful way.

Agree OP, sometimes I feel like every perceived slight becomes a gender issue (at least it seems like it in this bowl), the huge risk here is that the real gender issues are not taken as seriously when every little slight is categorized as discriminatory.

Sometimes people are just assholes and you don’t have to let it get to you 🤷🏽‍♀️

Did something happen OP? What’s the story?

Who are you to dictate what’s too sensitive? That statement in itself shows your failure to acknowledge that people may have a different experience than you and failure to respect and understand different feelings. A simple example, if you're white, you can't fully understand what it's like to be black, or Asian, or anything else. And vice-versa. *But everyone can relate to the feeling of being uncomfortable, angry, or hurt.* Seek to understand and educate yourself, you don’t have to agree with them but at the very least respect people enough not to label them “too sensitive”. A good way to show openness is by saying “If you see me display behavior that could be damaging, I would hope that you'd tell me”

unconscious bias etc. I want to be thoughtful about acknowledging these issues and supporting women but at the same time I want to strike a balance. As a principal if I can help two junior women succeed, I will be happy. How do you think about it?

Yes! We have always been the minority and some of us on multiple ways. We aren’t going to change everyone’s mind by throwing disdain in other people’s faces- including each other’s.

So often there is a ‘label’ attached to something and then that takes on a life of its own. These days everything is reduced to a sound byte or narrower view without seeing the whole picture or the more meaningful conversation others have alluded to.

Yes! I feel like so many people are looking for reasons to get worked up over what in reality should just be minor annoyances

The bottom line should be supporting outstanding junior women professionals. The women leadership initiative definitely doesn’t ask you to support incompetent and bitchy women:)