Double standards

Asked why there are so few women in business school, a male student in the study says I think business school is actually quite representative of the workplace per se that I know, which is banking.brThere are very few females in banking and especially few senior females in banking because, of course, the natural thing is for people to go, 'Okay, you are a female, you gonna get married and have babies and you gonna leave'. Which is not, obviously, the case but that's the natural precondition that we have growing up...brDissecting this comment, LBS researchers Elisabeth Kelan and Rachel Dunkley Jones say This statement achieves a dual purpose in that it cites common assumptions about women's career trajectories at the same time as discounting them as not being a true reflection of reality. [His] account is carefully tailored to present stereotypes about women as inaccurate even while using those same stereotypes to explain why there are so few women in business and consequently in business school.brThe research also describes notices that went up advertising an event for all students at the school's women in business club. The notices said a gorgeous masseuse from the female rugby team would be providing massages. This reflects the idea that women are travellers in a male business world and have to cope with the double presence, the study says.brAnother male student in the study, who is gay, recalls a work dinner with male colleagues when he asked them to stop talking about women in a sexist way. The atmosphere changed and the group was no longer relaxed because his intervention had disturbed a form of ritualistic male bonding.