In 1985, when I became a journalist, I was invited to join a group of female colleagues who met regularly to discuss how rotten it was being a woman at work. I turned up once but never again: I was irritated by the complaining and couldn’t help noticing the people who were doing the most of it were the least good at their jobs. If you’re not great at what you do, I thought, you shouldn’t blame it on your sex.
In 30 years I have progressed a bit in my views. Whether people are good at their jobs and whether they are suffering from gender bias are different questions. Where there is sexism, making a fuss — though boring for both the person doing the complaining and for the person listening — is important. If nothing is said, nothing changes.
Financial Times readers, it seems, have not progressed so much. Marissa Mayer last week complained to the FT that the media had it in for her because she was a woman — and FT readers responded as I did all those years ago. One wrote: “You are incompetent — it’s as simple as that, Mayer. Stop trying to hide behind ‘gender’ victimisation nonsense, please.”