21 April 2016, 1.30 pm
Fortunately, the meeting itself is a very positive experience. It is set in a large law firm that cares about diversity. I meet some IP lawyers and some HR experts, and they tell me about community outreach activities and blind recruitment, internal support networks, diversity targets, Flexible Working Committees and other such namby-pambiness. Then I tell them about the patent profession, which thinks it doesn’t have a diversity problem and that unconscious bias is a nasty affliction that only other people, especially evil people, suffer from, and moreover that recoils from collecting diversity data in case somebody sees it. The nice people at the large law firm say: There, there; it must have been a horrible taxi journey; take some deep breaths and have some lunch. Then they say, bless them: We can help you spread the word about diversity (which isn’t a problem) and unconscious bias (which is only for other people), and we can lend you a room in which to do this if you like. And I am so grateful I almost weep on their shoulders. They are women, you see. Women are good at providing shoulders to snivel on. When we have all finished snivelling, the nice people tell me about Imposter Syndrome. This is apparently something many women suffer from. It is when you constantly worry you’re about to get found out for not being up to the job. I say: Yes! I suffer from that! (Only they did find me out. So I was right, see?) Also I say: I work with quite a few men who genuinely are about to get found out, but haven’t yet realised. I am biding my time, I say. We share a conspiratorial smile or two, and the rest of the lunch.
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