I recently had to sit in in a few panel interviews as part of the interview process of some senior candidates. For the sake of showcasing diversity, we also had two women take part in it, even though one could question whether their level of experience warranted their inclusion, but this was clearly not the main criterion. In the Q&A part, one applicant asked one of the women what she liked liked most about working for Acme Corp., and the answer provided an interesting insight into the reality of being a moderately attractive woman working on the sausage floor.

This woman is in her late 20s or early 30s and even though some questionable lifestyle choices have negatively affected her looks, such as tattoos in unfortunate places and skin that is, due to excessive sunbathing, perhaps a bit flabbier than it otherwise would be, the average male in the office seems to fawn over her. I once observed that a gaggle of men, one a Senior IT Architect, the other a manager, showed her how to use JIRA, a standard ticketing system. She had the damsel-in-distress routine down pat, including the giggling and smiling part.

The answer this woman gave to the question mentioned above was that everybody is really helpful and that she has felt welcome from day one onward. No matter what she is struggling with, in her experience there is always someone there to help her out on short notice. No matter what kind of mess she got herself into, the highly-paid cucks around her are falling over themselves to help her out.

As helpful as those male colleagues of hers may be, it is obviously questionable to assume that they would be equally helpful if a heavily overweight damsel in distress showed up, just as it is less likely that her womanly charms will have the same effect on her emasculated colleagues in about five years. Due to female solipsism, however, she does not only not think that far. She also assumes that her experience is representative of everyone else’s, male or female alike.