Sam Polk's Article: The Overt Sexism In The Workplace

This article describes the sexism that the author, Sam Polk, witnessed while working on Wall Street and how he believes it affects the women working there. The article comments that there was, and is, a great deal of sexism in the workplace, specifically on Wall Street. Polk describes that sexist comments about female coworkers are how he would bond with his male coworkers when women were not present. Polk discusses how he feels that this way of speaking about women contributes to the fact that women on Wall Street do not hold high-level positions. This article suggests that the general attitude men on Wall Street about women, as described by Polk, might contribute to the overt sexism that is reported by women working on Wall Street. This

The restaurants where I worked had owners who were very protective of their staff, treating them like family. I have witnessed instances where a guest has been extremely rude to an employee and they have been asked to leave and not come back. While Polk’s client waited until the waitress was out of earshot, many are not as careful with their words. I have been fortunate enough that the men that I work with refrain from using the degrading language described in the article, at least to my knowledge. I have not been so fortunate with guests at the restaurant. A specific incident I witnessed occurred when, after one of the waitress left a table asking if they needed anything else a male guest said to his companions that he “needs a good fuck from her.” The guest’s friends were all very amused by his comments and a few of them agreed with his comment. This particular guest was a regular at the restaurant and he had a reputation for being rude and creepy. None of the waitresses wanted to wait on him because of the way that he looked at them. This guest was asked by one of the managers, who also overheard the comment that I had heard, to leave and not return to the restaurant. I later found out from the manager that it was not the first time that he had overheard that particular guest making rude comments about members

The guest when asked to leave got very angry with the owner and began yelling at him. The guest did not feel that he did anything wrong and did not understand why he was being asked to leave, he told the owner that he was only “playing” with the hostess. The owner informed him that if he could not respect the staff he was not welcome in the restaurant. This action is more aggressive than the comments made by men in the article or comments made by the guest in the previous example, but it shows that there is a social feeling that men can do or say whatever they want to