International Women-know-your-worth Day
Last week one of my colleagues invited me to attend a simcha (family celebration) he was making. I was seated at a table with several of his relatives – and this being a strictly Orthodox affair, the event was segregated seating so everyone around me was female. One of his cousins asked me how I knew the host, so I explained that we worked at the same organisation. “That’s nice,” she smiled. “Are you a receptionist?” “No,” I replied, “I work in the upstairs office.” “Ah,” she said knowingly, “you’re a secretary.” Without wishing for one minute to diminish the important work carried out by legions of receptionists and ‘secretaries’ (does that even still exist as a job title?!) across the land, as it happens, that’s not my job. But this is not the first time – very much not the first time – that I’ve got into conversation with both women and men from the Charedi (strictly Orthodox) community and they’ve immediately assumed, on learning that I work, that I must be i...