Photo: @whitneyrose617 / TikTok
"It's 2023 can this stop?"
By Megan Quinn — Written on Jan 28, 2023
“It’s rough being a woman in a male-dominated field,” one woman shared, and she’s not wrong.
The public relations worker became the victim of misogyny after a technical mishap during a virtual meeting with male colleagues.
In a TikTok video posted by user @whitneyrose617 that has been viewed over 11 million times, she reveals the shocking incident that happened entirely over a Zoom meeting with male vendors.
The woman caught her colleagues saying nasty and sexist comments about her in a group chat.
The video begins with Whitney calling out the vendors after one of them unintentionally shared messages that were written in a group chat on his computer screen, using the screen share option to make it visible to everyone in the meeting.
Although she doesn’t share the exact content of the messages, it is clear that the men were making sexist and offensive comments about Whitney.
“If we’re going to continue working together, I want to work with a woman sales representative because I don’t want to have to see ‘locker room’ talk about myself when you’re sharing screens,” she says.
While she acknowledges that the messages being shared with the entire group were most likely unintentional, she would not like to experience the same issue again and work with a woman sales representative instead.
“I like the product, I know it’s good, I know it’s tired and true but I just want to work with a woman moving forward if possible?” she politely asks.
The male vendor apologized to Whitney, deeming the incident and messages written about her as “inexcusable.”
“When a vendor accidentally shares his group teams chat and it’s all nasty things about me. It’s 2023 can this stop,” she wrote in the text overlay over the video.
TikTok users praised Whitney for how she handled the situation in the comments.
"Yeeees! You handled this so well! I'm sending it to my daughters! You are AMAZING!” one user commented.
“The fact that you called them out so tactfully is so impressive. I hope they are embarrassed” another user wrote.
“SO proud of you for standing up for yourself,” another added.
In a follow-up video, Whitney shared with viewers that she received an apology email from the company’s Vice President of Sales.
“I think that this could’ve been written a lot better,” she admits, displaying a screenshot of the email.
“First and foremost, I’d like to sincerely apologize, that type of behavior is not endorsed and is not the type of organization we are running here,” the message reads. “I understand you’d like to work with a female moving forward, however, I do not have anyone skilled enough to assist you that is a female.”
Whitney points out that this in itself poses a problem.
“Why don’t you hire someone? There are plenty of talented women in the field… it would be an honor to have them join your company,” she says.
She expressed that would instead like to receive a phone call from the Vice President instead.
He delivered with just that, as Whitney revealed in a follow-up video.
However, she claims that his intention was to do “damage control” and “save the sale” rather than formally apologize.
“I cannot work with a vendor in my company that will work with a vendor that does not support women in business,” she says.
The only concrete action promised against the male vendors who made the nasty comments about Whitney would be a discussion with HR.
According to PewResearch, 42% of women report sexism and gender discrimination in the workplace.
Megan Quinn is a writer at YourTango who covers entertainment and news, self, love, and relationships.