In my personal experiences I have come across times where I feel like being a male may have cost me a job or two. My first experience dates back to when I was in high school and I applied to work at a place called CareCall. A female friend of mine from school had informed about how she worked there and the money was pretty good. Naturally, as a high school kid the thought of making good money was intriguing. The time came, I submitted my application, went for an interview and knew pretty much right away that I didn’t get the job. That same friend was bummed when she found out I didn’t get the job, but through later conversations we discovered that most of her supervisors and co-workers on her team were female. I didn’t think about that being a potential reason for not getting the job at the time, but it definitely became something I thought about later.

Another example is at my last job prior to the one I currently have. It was working in a role called relationship management. The manager was female, her manager was female, and all but one of the team members were female. The role I came from before it, was run by a female as well. When the role opened up, I applied and was a finalist, but was denied the position even though I was told I had an incredible interview. There were two open positions and both went to female candidates. The role became available once again, and I applied again, went through the interview process and again was turned down for a female. It appeared from the outside looking in that this role was mostly a role that was filled by female employees. When the role came available for a 3rd time, I again applied and was this time selected, but it was not an easy process. Shortly after I joined the team, the only other male that was on the team left for another role and I was fortunate enough to sit in on the interview process for the candidates to replace him. There were multiple candidates, all had great interviews, but the female was chosen. Once the manager left, she was then replaced immediately, by another female with no additional candidate looked at.

I am not saying that the female candidates were not qualified as well, as they clearly were, but at times it did feel that being interviewed and going through the process was a formality that they needed to follow. Again, I do not believe that the female candidates were less qualified because they were finalists as I was but I do feel this is a great example of how gender inequality in the workplace does work both ways.

Are there any other examples of where this might have existed?