HOW ABOUT FORGETTING ABOUT YOUR OWN LIFE, MISS?
1 June

This morning I went for a job interview with a political consultancy in Brussels. As all employers aspire, they were looking for someone which would match their requirements: Good degree/s, interesting work experience, fluency in several languages, diplomatic soft skills and time spent abroad. Within my sphere of people, these are criteria and characteristics which almost everyone has. Standards and competition in Brussels are hard and people are smart.

My panel consisted of four middle-aged men in black suits. They were all were friendly and nicely impressed by my background and achievements. It was when they bluntly moved into the “we are looking for someone who is prepared to work long hours-territory” that I got uncomfortable itches: “We are a very hard working consultancy, always striving for the best people to work for us to deliver the best results. We start our day at the latest 8:30 and stay in the office until 7pm, frequently later if required. We are looking for people we can make a long-term investment in. Looking at your age, are you married? I said no. So would you say that you focus on your career? Yes. We need someone who would focus on their career for the next 10 to 15 years – would you do that?”

Fair enough. They were being honest with me, not trying to give the impression they would offer me easy work.

But inside I was boiling and I asked myself if they would ever have the same conversation with a man, or if they would even tell them about the long hours. Most likely, they wouldn’t.

So here we go again. They will probably choose a man, arguing that that man fulfils all their criteria. If they had two candidates with exactly the same qualities (and, importantly, given that the female candidate was only “average”-looking), I am certain that the man would be offered the job. If in a relationship, he would know that he would be able to dedicate all those future evenings because his future wife would take care of the home and children. By default.

I know we are more equal today compared to ever before, but we can leave that out of the equation and instead throw in pure biological factors. Very few 28 year old women would dare to, or even want to claim that their first priority in the next 15 years will be their career. That would be a lie and I some employers seem to use this when recruiting.