Poll: Have you ever faced any challenges in the industry you feel your male/female counterparts did not? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "Have you ever faced any challenges in the industry you feel your male/female counterparts did not?".
View the poll results »
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My biggest challenges have been personal, not professional…
| | | | Mario Chávez
United States
Local time: 05:55
Member (Jun 2024)
English to Spanish
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| And the purpose of this poll is? | Aug 14 |
What is the purpose or motivation behind this poll? I went to university to get a translation degree a while ago in Argentina. Interesting fact: my first year it was us 5 men and about 98-100 women. Should I have felt like a victimized minority in a profession dominated by women? No, it never crossed my mind.
Here in America we're used to reading about the glass ceiling in the corporate world for women. Fair enough; there's also an ongoing debate about equal pay, which I think it's ... See more What is the purpose or motivation behind this poll? I went to university to get a translation degree a while ago in Argentina. Interesting fact: my first year it was us 5 men and about 98-100 women. Should I have felt like a victimized minority in a profession dominated by women? No, it never crossed my mind.
Here in America we're used to reading about the glass ceiling in the corporate world for women. Fair enough; there's also an ongoing debate about equal pay, which I think it's sensible to a point. There's the danger of injecting too much gender politics in any given profession or industry to make any discussions or changes worthwhile for everyone involved.
As far as I can see, there's no pay inequality for men and women in the translation or language services professions, which is something to celebrate. Apart from that, why are we even polling Proz members about unnamed challenges in the industry by gender? I think we all have bigger fish to fry. ▲ Collapse
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As there is no male Edith, I cannot say for sure, but I suspect that rate negotiations would have been easier if I were a man. Actually, I once heard about a male virtual assistant (as in: non-existing) of a female freelance copywriter - "he" did all negotiations and she faced considerably less opposition. Once, a prospective client called - any other communications were done by email - and asked for this guy ... She had her brother answer the phone while whispering to him what he should say ... See more As there is no male Edith, I cannot say for sure, but I suspect that rate negotiations would have been easier if I were a man. Actually, I once heard about a male virtual assistant (as in: non-existing) of a female freelance copywriter - "he" did all negotiations and she faced considerably less opposition. Once, a prospective client called - any other communications were done by email - and asked for this guy ... She had her brother answer the phone while whispering to him what he should say  It's too late now, but I may have been better off if I'd marketed myself als "Ed" from the beginning ... ▲ Collapse
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Liena Vijupe 
Latvia
Local time: 12:55
Member (2014)
French to Latvian
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I have not, but maybe I've just been too busy to care and don't see how being male would have helped me in my work.
Maybe I'd receive more technical stuff and less of beauty/cosmetics, but I can live with that.
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I can't provide evidence for this, but I think women have to work harder than men to be taken seriously in technical fields like engineering.
In my experience, networking is also much harder for women in these male-dominated fields.
| | | | Kay Denney
France
Local time: 11:55
French to English
Rachel Waddington wrote:
I can't provide evidence for this, but I think women have to work harder than men to be taken seriously in technical fields like engineering.
In my experience, networking is also much harder for women in these male-dominated fields.
I have a little anecdote that would confirm it.
For years I proofread a newsletter for a client at the agency I used to work at. Every three months they'd send it. It was for people in the automotive industry, so pretty technical, but we had a huge glossary for that client and anyway, the people who wrote what I needed to proofread knew their stuff technically, and only really needed someone to brush up the style, because they were not native speakers. I would correct typical false friends, and generally rewrite the text so it sounded more like natural English than text translated from German by an engineer. There were never any complaints or queries about my work and they kept coming back.
We only ever had contact via email and the job came from the Italian branch.
One day someone called to speak to Kay, and so I said "speaking". The person didn't understand and asked again. "Yes, it's me". They were very confused and finally it transpired that they thought I was a man. Turns out Kay is a man's name in Italy!
Further to that conversation, I proofread the newsletter a couple more times, and each time they called with several questions, as if doubting my ability to do the job. They had never done that before. And then, the newsletter stopped coming.
There were multiple other instances at the agency of sexism: towards a former intern who was so full of herself, she dared to mention that if she were to be hired permanently, she'd want a decent salary as opposed to the bare minimum paid to interns, towards the female computer technician who came to sort out some IT glitches and did a better job than the guy who usually came, to me as a working mother needing to either take days I was entitled to when my kids were sick, or work from home, to my colleague needing to start her maternity leave early if she didn't want to lose her babies.
| | | | | Purpose and motivation | Aug 15 |
Mario Chávez wrote:
What is the purpose or motivation behind this poll? I went to university to get a translation degree a while ago in Argentina. Interesting fact: my first year it was us 5 men and about 98-100 women. Should I have felt like a victimized minority in a profession dominated by women? No, it never crossed my mind.
Here in America we're used to reading about the glass ceiling in the corporate world for women. Fair enough; there's also an ongoing debate about equal pay, which I think it's sensible to a point. There's the danger of injecting too much gender politics in any given profession or industry to make any discussions or changes worthwhile for everyone involved.
As far as I can see, there's no pay inequality for men and women in the translation or language services professions, which is something to celebrate. Apart from that, why are we even polling Proz members about unnamed challenges in the industry by gender? I think we all have bigger fish to fry.
The purpose or motivation behind this poll - and behind most other polls, I suspect - is, in my opinion, to keep people engaged, keep them coming to the site and keep them posting, since not much else seems to be going on here these days.
Hence the most random polls being posted religiously on almost a daily basis.
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Mario Chávez
United States
Local time: 05:55
Member (Jun 2024)
English to Spanish
+ ...
| To bring people back to the website more often | Aug 15 |
I'm no fan of customer satisfaction polls or surveys myself. I agree with your premise, it's a fair overall reason for motivating users to come to the website often.
However...
Proz.com staff should do two things from now on. My two cents:
1) Rework the poll format; lengthen text field for the question and make it a requisite for the pollster to briefly describe the purpose of the poll, as we are all busy professionals and have no time for banal or i... See more I'm no fan of customer satisfaction polls or surveys myself. I agree with your premise, it's a fair overall reason for motivating users to come to the website often.
However...
Proz.com staff should do two things from now on. My two cents:
1) Rework the poll format; lengthen text field for the question and make it a requisite for the pollster to briefly describe the purpose of the poll, as we are all busy professionals and have no time for banal or inane questions;
2) Make polls purposeful and relevant to our everyday professional lives; avoid using polls as ideological or dogmatic vehicles.
Cheers,
Mario Chávez
Maria G. Grassi, MA AITI wrote:
Mario Chávez wrote:
What is the purpose or motivation behind this poll? I went to university to get a translation degree a while ago in Argentina. Interesting fact: my first year it was us 5 men and about 98-100 women. Should I have felt like a victimized minority in a profession dominated by women? No, it never crossed my mind.
Here in America we're used to reading about the glass ceiling in the corporate world for women. Fair enough; there's also an ongoing debate about equal pay, which I think it's sensible to a point. There's the danger of injecting too much gender politics in any given profession or industry to make any discussions or changes worthwhile for everyone involved.
As far as I can see, there's no pay inequality for men and women in the translation or language services professions, which is something to celebrate. Apart from that, why are we even polling Proz members about unnamed challenges in the industry by gender? I think we all have bigger fish to fry.
The purpose or motivation behind this poll - and behind most other polls, I suspect - is, in my opinion, to keep people engaged, keep them coming to the site and keep them posting, since not much else seems to be going on here these days.
Hence the most random polls being posted religiously on almost a daily basis. ▲ Collapse
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Hi everyone,
I will go off topic for a bit here.
Maria G. Grassi, MA AITI wrote:
The purpose or motivation behind this poll - and behind most other polls, I suspect - is, in my opinion, to keep people engaged, keep them coming to the site and keep them posting, since not much else seems to be going on here these days.
That's right, Maria. ProZ.com quick polls are quick, convenient (and unscientific!) one-question surveys designed to encourage the exchange of information among linguists. Other things are going on at ProZ.com, but you won't find them in the Poll Discussion forum though (you may check our monthly newsletter).
Hence the most random polls being posted religiously on almost a daily basis.
That's the nature of the feature, yes. Quick polls have been designed to be rotated daily. You can find more information about quick polls here: https://www.proz.com/faq/4543#4543
Thanks for participating!
Mario Chávez wrote:
Proz.com staff should do two things from now on. My two cents:
1) Rework the poll format; lengthen text field for the question and make it a requisite for the pollster to briefly describe the purpose of the poll, as we are all busy professionals and have no time for banal or inane questions;
2) Make polls purposeful and relevant to our everyday professional lives; avoid using polls as ideological or dogmatic vehicles.
Thanks for your feedback, Mario. Just remember, answering quick polls is not required, only encouraged if you find the topic interesting enough.
Now let's please stay on topic from now on, the topic being possible challenges in the industry that you may have faced and that you feel your male/female counterparts did not? Thanks!
Lucia
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