LADIES - Always make your feelings known!

I DON'T MEAN just tell your best friend how you felt about the storyline in a soap!

I mean tell whoever's responsible if you're not happy about something.

Whether it be major (you've just witnessed an attack) or minor (the men have pinched the best lockers), let it out!

I'm a lawyer, but I'm not touting for business (I've got enough, thank you!). However, if you make your feelings known to your boss, it'll make it easier to win any legal case later on.

Gender

But, aside from that, the men (and occasional women) in charge of whatever it is you're not happy about, NEED to know! Especially if we're talking about gender exclusion, discrimination or violence.

MEN MUST NOT BE ALLOWED TO GET AWAY WITH IT.

Your rights

Wherever you are, try to ensure that your rights as a woman are not compromised. If your boss offers overtime to his male members of staff because he assumes you'll have families to go home to, tell him off for assuming.

Examples: Well, if you've read my other pieces you'll know my "pet hates" (or "guilty pleasures"?).

At uni, I complained once that boys always drove the minibus into town. They gave us various excuses, but as soon as we were old enough, I and my roommate did our share of the driving.

Or, previously, at a weekend job, I was annoyed about the fact that there was NEVER enough tp (toilet paper) in the unisex toilet. It was bad enough having to hover over a seat that the men had sprayed, but... well, anyway, I persuaded the assistant boss (a woman, thank God) to provide myself and the other girl there with paper that only we had the key to.

Two silly examples sorted.

Start small

So start small like I did, and work up - when I was harassed (more verbally than physically) at my first 'proper' job, I told my colleagues, then my immediate boss, and I would have continued upwards if the man responsible hadn't been fired for interfering with another girl, who'd also complained.

And don't worry about any reprisals from the person you're complaining about. The law will be on your side, and it's better to get what you want and need, than suffer because a man is being sexist.

If you ARE worried, check with other staff before you complain. You're likely to find that he's been harassing other female staff, and you may even find that other men there feel compromised by his actions.

Life is too short, and too fraught with international things which both genders have to suffer, for you to put up with additional local problems caused you BECAUSE you dare to be a woman!