Naturally, during the first years, being an immigrant learning the English language made me experience the outsider feeling in practically all social situations, from shopping to attending any party — unless it was a typical London party where most people were immigrants like me. About five years or so after settling in the UK, that feeling kind of vanished.
Once I became proficient in the language, became a British citizen, and had a stable job, I kind of forgot that I was a foreigner in the eyes of some people. Since then, I have worked for many animal protection organisations in the UK, and I was very lucky to feel quite at home just a couple of weeks after joining their teams.
I felt in the right place, as I knew what was expected of me and the roles seemed to fit me. However, in , I experienced the feeling of outsider again when I started working with a new one, but this time it had nothing to do with where I was born, but with the gender I willingly had aligned myself with. According to their names and appearance, it seemed that there were only two other people identified as men in the office of more than 20 people — and all staff above me seem to be women.
So what? Indeed, it should not make any difference, I agree. This was because, perhaps in this case, the gender imbalance seemed much more pronounced. This is not a secret. I did not last long. Three months later, despite I needed the job because I was in the middle of an expensive litigation against a previous employer the one that later led a judge to rule that ethical veganism is a protected characteristic under the Equality Act , I decided to leave. There were many reasons for that decision which would not be appropriate for me to spell out here, but I sometimes wonder if those intrusive gender thoughts might have somehow contributed to it.
That may me think about how often women may also have such thoughts interfering with their chances to succeed in a male-dominated environment.
