Comment: Sexism in the workplace when you're the boss - and a woman

Entrepreneur Tara-Jay Rimmer hadn't really experienced sexism until she set up her own company in a male-dominated industry. And even then it came from an unexpected place.

Sexism doesn't always come from where you expect it when you're a female boss in a male-dominated industry. Source: Getty Images

Until I started a business, I didn’t know how lucky I was to be born with a vagina and a brain.

You see, I hadn’t really experienced sexism until I started my business - a deliveries and removals business - a few years ago.

Don’t be fooled by the fact that the transport industry is rife with sexism and full of chauvinists - these were not the culprits.

The situation is far worse than that. The sexism that I have experienced is from everyday people.

Often it is very casual sexism ranging from, “Really, this is your business”, to “You don’t look like you own a transport company”, or my favourite, “I would love a meeting with your boss.”

In the beginning, when you start a business, networking is your key to success. This means putting yourself out there into an unfamiliar environment with people that you have never met before and hoping to make a connection. Not too dissimilar to speed dating really.

Sometimes though people take that definition a bit too far. Like taking business cards to ask for a coffee catch-up to “discuss business further” and it actually turns out they wanted a date, which becomes apparent when they casually mention they have “checked you out on Facebook” (this actually happened). After I politely rejected this individual, he resorted to calling me a “Barbie bitch” to which I corrected him with, “It’s business Barbie, bitch.”

When you have started building up some clients, you often reduce the amount of time spent networking, so then convince yourself that the judgment based on your looks is going to stop. But then you remember you sound like a woman.

Once, my company received a call from a lady wanting to confirm a booking, but apparently speaking to me wasn’t enough. Since all I had done is greet her politely, I can only assume it was because I was a woman.

The most original, and humorous, insult that I have received by far is “The Vag That Can’t”, a clever little play on The Van That Can, from a middle-aged man who worked for a TV network in Perth, left in the comments section of a news article.

As an entrepreneur I believe that all of us in small business can do our own small part to end gender inequality by hiring females that are good enough for the job and paying them what they are worth and treating them the same as we would a man.

Judging them on their ability to perform the job at hand, not how they look or dress. It's that simple.

Tara-Jay Rimmer is an entrepreneur, founder of The Van That Can, writer and key note speaker based in Brisbane.