Janelle was sick of having to talk to awkward and creepy male colleagues. The solution? The reintroduction of segregation.
@pixabay.com
June 27, 2019
Janelle Bell, the founder of No Misters: Workplace Sisters, has found her niche market in the coworking world: women who want to work and not have to put up with unwanted male attention. When asked about her motivation for her new workplace, Janelle explains that men, "especially the creepy ones, are always so weird and uncomfortable when they talk to you. It distracts me from my work and makes me feel icky." Janelle continues, "women-only gyms have become very popular for this exact reason, so why not have women-only coworking spaces? It is our company's moral duty to do whatever it takes to make women feel safe and productive."
Pat Cakes, the co-founder of Femme Fatales Work Pals, and a competitor to Janelle, said that "dividing people based on physical characteristics is a simple solution." Pat is a firm believer that the world is pretty much black or white, yes or no, and there is no room for grey or nuance." Pat explains, "it is not that all men are the issue, the majority are great. The problem is that we can't figure out the bad apples from the bunch, so we need to throw out the entire bunch! Easy-Peasy." When asked if the work-space manager could ask the 'bad-male apples' to correct their behaviour or leave, Pat said, "it would be too uncomfortable, and it is not my job to teach men how to behave."
Pat and Janelle believe that teaching the appropriate etiquette and behaviour around male-female interactions is not the solution; we shouldn't "call men in," we need to "push them out." It is better to separate the groups and avoid conflict altogether.
A word of warning, when moral duty and ideology lead to the justification of divisiveness and exclusion, slopes can become very slippery.
xx E.M Munster
