It’s 2021 and the only comments on an article about financial support for women entrepreneurs were about my boobs.
Did you hear? Dough was featured in Business Insider. As much as I want to celebrate an accomplishment I’m oh so proud of, it was paired with a powerful reminder.
The article was being shared and toasted to on the New Year by my ever-supportive family, my cousin included, who discovered the original tweet from Business Insider. Excited, I went to take a look, to reshare from the source, when I stumbled upon the comment section where the only comments were about my boobs.
“The internet isn’t going to fool me anymore with big boob clickbait. In 2021 I’m a new man! I’m not going to click on every big boob I see anymore!”
I laughed it off. Plus — it’s Twitter. Most likely trolls? Bots? NBD. Then, I hunted down the posting on LinkedIn. You know — the network for professional connections. This is what I saw:
“I love a good cleavage story. Thank you Business Insider. Your soft porn continues to keep me responding.”
“Thanks for being honest…made me chuckle…I’m a couple of generations older and at her age if we would have thought of dressing like that we would have never been taken seriously on a professional level. Times have changed…”
Now, I bounced back to a solid mix of annoyance and rage. How dare I start a company and have breasts, large ones at that?
It’s not like I haven’t encountered this before. I’m often catcalled, I’ve been hired solely based on my looks (looking at you Hollister/Abercrombie) and I’ve had managers make advances. I wish I could say I was an exception, but I’m not. 1 in 3 women say they’ve been sexually harassed at work.
To question if I was overreacting, I shared the posts on my Facebook. My loved ones quickly validated my reaction. In true no filter Boston fashion, there was a number of f-bombs dropped combined with many women revealing their own experiences with bias mixed with shocked reactions from the men in my family.
At Dough, I'm fortunate to be surrounded by and collaborate with women founders and folks focused on building an inclusive and equitable world. These comments are a stark reminder of what women face in the workspace every day. From straight out misogyny to victim-blaming.
The reality is judging women on their looks instead of their accomplishments has real consequences. It’s one of the many reasons we started Dough. It leads to:
- Lack of capital and access to business loans (nearly 90% of women and minority-owned businesses were shut out of the Paycheck Protection Program and VC funding has gone down to just 1% for women since the start of the pandemic)
- The Opportunity Gap (From YWCA: To understand the difference between the opportunity gap and the wage gap, think of it this way: the opportunity gap refers to inputs — the unequal or inequitable distribution of employment and opportunities, while the wage gap refers to outputs — the unequal or inequitable distribution of wages and benefits.)
- The Wage Gap (New Census data reveals no progress has been made on closing the overall gender pay gap)
Honestly, this has given me more fire to have Dough thrive. I’ll be over here, continuing to wear what I feel confident in, building Dough to get women entrepreneurs the dollars they need to succeed.
Want to support our work at Dough? Here’s Three Ways How:
- Partner with us and give back to our grant program, The Wallet Power Fund.
- Become a Dough VIP and receive free shipping on every order while shopping women-owned businesses year-round.
- Consider gifting products from Dough for events, your team, and more. Email us at hello@joindough.com.
