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WanderingEng  ·  3375 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Men: Older? School-Age? College-Age?: Do You Ever Ask These Questions?

I guess I'm older; I'm 12 years out of college.

0. I do think about this. It isn't that I think I might treat them with less respect but rather I'm aware I may act differently because they're women and I'm a man who is attracted to women. I don't want to treat them differently.

1. I don't think about whether I make assumptions about the qualifications of the women I work with. I work with some absolutely superb women, and I have no doubt about their qualifications. I've worked with excellent women, excellent men, poor women and poor men. In my work experience I've found no correlation between gender and ability, and I'm pretty sure I know this both consciously and subconsciously.

2. I rarely seek out leadership roles. It's one of my faults and something I'm trying to work on not as a way of dominating but as a way of sharing my experience with others.

3. I don't think I worry about the gender of the leader. I've worked with good female leaders, and their ability was the only thing that mattered.

4. I definitely catch myself making assumptions about people based on whatever physical characteristics I can see. I make conscious efforts to set those assumptions aside, but they are still there.

5. I sometimes think about how to be a better friend. The piece I've thought most about is how to listen and respond when a friend is telling me about struggling with something. I think I've become better at it, but I still think about how to do better.