In Consideration of Women
a disappointing real life introduction to a post that is actually a book review:
Roughly 31% of salespersons in the US are women. You are probably not surprised by the gender inequity in this field.
After an acquisition this summer, a prominent vendor in the Sales Technology space is now marketing their new conversational intelligence tool to guide salespersons on their calls with potential customers.
The products name? Wingman.
It’s wild that a this product was not only brought to market with this name, but that it was then acquired by a larger company and retained the name.
What is even more wild to me is that the founder and CEO is a woman! .. ?!
Color me surprised! — actually flabbergasted. I spent the past two weeks thinking to myself there was no way that women were involved in the product development or marketing of this product, and after a quick Google as I start to write this post, I discover the truth.
”Wingman” seems like such an overt way to further drive bias and inequity in the sales profession.
Was this gender biased product name intentional? Was it a play to try to appeal to the male dominated workforce? Did they ever even consider the implication of the name?
I sent a connection request to the CEO on LinkedIn as I started to write this post and she’s accepted and responded to by inquiry. More to come at the end of this post. 👀
On to the books
Pandora’s Jar: Women in Greek Myths by Natalie Haynes
and
Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Perez
each focus on how historic and current narratives and practices have either erased or not even considered the female perspective. Both are well researched, wonderfully written.
Each leaves you thinking “wth?” and also inspires ideas on how we can better promote the consideration and inclusion of women today and in the future.
Pandora’s Jar
Natalie Haynes is a writer, broadcaster and mythologist. In Pandora’s Jar she details the story of 10 women in Greek Mythology, who featured prominently in ancient text but whose presence and impact has been diluted or eliminated in the versions of these story popular today.
She states in her introduction:
“Every myth contains multiple timelines within itself: the time in which it is set, the time it is first told and every retelling afterwards. Myths may be the home of the miraculous, but they are also the mirrors of us. Which version we choose to tell, which characters we place in the foreground, which ones we allow to fade into the shadows: these reflect both the teller and the reader, as much as they show the characters of the myth.”
I read this book in January and of the 10 women featured: Pandora, Jocasta, Helen, Medusa, The Amazons, Clytemnestra, Eurydice, Phaedra, Medea, and Penelope - the chapters on Jocasta and Helen are those which I recall most clearly.
Jocasta
You’ve certainly heard of Oedipus, the man who killed his father and married his mother! If you haven’t heard of him, you’ve certainly heard of the eponymous complex that Freud so kindly gifted the world.
Have you heard of Jocasta?
Jocasta, the woman who birthed a son whom she must send to death as an infant because he was prophesied to one day kill his father, her husband. The woman who years later unknowingly marries her son (who it turns out did survive) after her husband is murdered (by guess who?!) because she was promised as a prize by her brother to whomever could get rid Thebes of a pesky Sphinx by solving a riddle.
Multiple ancient texts tell the story of Jocasta and Oedipus. Oedipus Tyrranos is the version the most common by today’s standards. What other texts with Jocasta exist and what is her role in each?
In a version which predates Oedipus Tyrranos by ~150 years, Jocasta is a strong political leader negotiating with her two warring sons. In version written roughly 20 years after Oedipus Tyrranos , Euripedes’ The Phoenician Women, Oedipus plays a minor role, appearing only 200 lines before the end.
Which version of Jocasta’s story has persisted into modern day? Sophocles’ Oedipus Tyrrannos, of course. The version where Jocasta plays a minor role, having only 120 lines of the 1530 line play.
Is her story not equally as compelling? Is the character of Jocasta not equally deserving of preservation and repetition throughout the years?
“When women take up space, there is less available for men. But it means we get a whole story instead of half of one. It scarcely needs saying that our understanding of the story of Oedipus is enriched when we know the story of Jocasta and vice versa. ”
Helen
Helen of Troy, or of Sparta, however you want to think about it, is one of the names that has not been lost throughout the ages. Her name is synonymous with beauty, with war - for it was her face that famously launched 1000 Greek ships.
Acts of violence by men are often blamed on women (—well, what was she wearing?!) and it seems that sadly and not surprisingly, this is nothing new, as the Trojan was was fought roughly 3000 years ago.
Two interesting topics discussed in her chapter:
Who REALLY launched 1000 ships?
Ancient commentary of the Homer’s Iliad surface that “the earth was groaning beneath the weight of so many people” as the number of mortals continued to increase. The commentary implicates that Zeus took it upon himself to orchestrate a longer plan of population control by pitting the Greeks and the Trojans against each other. He organises for Paris (son of the Trojan King) to judge a contest between three goddesses, each who make a different promise in exchange for the prized golden apple to be bestowed upon the winner.
What does each goddess offer? Hera offers his a kingdom encompassing Europe and Asia, Athena offers him the power to destroy the Greeks in war - and finally, Aphrodite, offers Helen a woman already married to a Greek Kind. Paris gifts the apple to Aphrodite as a result of this contest that Zeus has orchestrated. Paris comes to collect his lady prize, and whether her escape with Paris was forced or willing, it was a departure designed and destined by the gods themselves.
There are other details along the way, like King Priam and Hecabe letting Paris live past infancy despite prophetic dreams of his being a torch that would burn Troy to the ground and Menelaus leaving Paris alone with Helen in Sparta. Aside from this and the play for divine vanity, the gods (we will read that in modern times: the men in charge) had already decided that a war between Greece and Troy was necessary.Was Helen ever actually taken to Troy?
Some versions of ancient texts introduce the idea of an eidolon - “a breathing simulacrum” is introduced, implying that Helen herself is never actually taken from Sparta to Troy, but that essentially an image of Helen is what Paris stows away on his journey. The real Helen spends the duration of the war elsewhere, usually told she is in Egypt.
We learn of one of these lost ancient versions featuring the eidolon through Plato’s Republic where he mentions the eidolon of Helen fought over by those ignorant of the truth. Plato states that men fight over phantom pleasures and pains.
In Euripedes play Helen when she is reunited with her husband Menelaus he ask her “How could a person be both here and in Troy?” She responds “A name can be in lots of places at once. A person can’t.”
What did it take to launch 1000 ships?Helen’s abduction and presence in Troy or simply just the idea of her?
Invisible Women
Invisible Women argues that the lives of men have been taken to represent those of humans overall.
The book explores the gender data gaps and the consequences that this has on women and on society as a whole. It’s clever, it’s quippy and it’s a wonderful read for all.
The book breaks down into the following sections:
Daily Life
The Workplace
Design
Going to the Doctor
Public Life
When it All Goes Wrong
The chapters which were most shocking to me were featured in the “Going to the Doctor” section.
”Historically, it’s been assumed that there wasn’t anything fundamentally difference between male and female bodies, other than size and reproductive function, and for years medical education has been focused on the male ‘norm’, with everything that falls outside that designated as ‘atypical’ or ‘abnormal’. When women are mentioned, they are presented as a variation on standard humanity.” pg - 196
What are some points of differentiation?
Every tissue and organ system in the human body, including the fundamental workings of the heart, and in lung capacity
Immune system which impacts the rate of auto-immune diseases and impacts the response to vaccines based on the fact that women have higher antibody responses
Blood-serum biomarkers for autism, in proteins, in immune cells used to convey pain signals, and in how cells die following a stroke
So what does this mean for women?
Data gaps in anatomical sketches in medical school curriculum and driven by lack of inclusion by women in clinical trials - lack of consideration of drug treatments which may be beneficial to women by never reach human testing because they were rules out at the cell and animal trail stage.
Though sex differences in animals have been consistently reported for nearly 50 years, a 2007 paper found that 90% of pharmacological articles described male only studies!
Lack of solid data on how to treat pregnant women for almost anything due to their lack of inclusion in clinical trials
The prescription of drugs in the 1960s to expectant mothers that affected foetal development, though manufacturers knew ahead of time, and was only taken off the market after 10,000 children were born with related disabilities
Condemnation of women to avoidable heart failure due to the fact that the defibrillator is calibrated based on a threshold designed for men, missing the relevant threshold for the majority of women
Incorrect recommendations for diabetes, metabolism, and even ice-pack application based of information that is not studied and designed with women in mind
While we’ve thankfully moved away from physical lobotomies since the 1970s, a recent Swedish study found that men are more likely to report depression also found that women who HAVE NOT reported depression are twice as likely to be described anti-depressants - “it’s all in your head!”
Back to Wingman
Here is what I sent the CEO:
”I love that you are a female founder in the sales technology space and wanted to inquire on your process of developing and bringing Wingman to market.
I've been reading recently about gender bias and and thinking about how it relates the representation of the % of women in the sales profession, which is quite low at ~30%.
I am curious to know, do you and the team consider the name "Wingman" gendered? Was there discussion on whether the term would feel exclusionary for women in the sales profession?”
Here was her response:
”Thanks for reaching out.
When we chose the name we actually had the air force context in mind and while gendered seemed relevant to the way we were looking at the problem we solve.
However we have received some feedback from folks especially in the US who view it as gendered.
Especially because their default pop culture context of the word is in the Dating world.”
I really appreciate her taking the time to respond, but I understood WHY they named it Wingman all along. It’s the obvious choice, not the thoughtful, equitable choice.
I am conflicted though, in that they did consider the gendered name (do we give them points here?) but they still felt strongly about moving forward with this name as it aligned with the problem they were looking to solve (definitely a big deduction of points here). The alignment of this “perceived problems” they were trying to solve is such a narrow minded way to think of it in my opinion. If solving problem A reinforces problem B, where we we left?
I’ve searched and clicked on several sources which put the percentage of women military pilots anywhere from ~7-30%, which is worse than what we are seeing in the sales profession! You may be “solving” something with conversational intelligence tools in the industry, but what are you doing for women but leaving them on the deck of the air craft carrier while the men all take off in the jets?
