I'm the little lady
My name is Lilach Givaty. I’ve been working at Semantinet for over a year now.
What makes this interesting is that I‘m the only woman in the company.
Funnily, although it doesn’t come up early in conversations, eventually it always does and is usually accompanied by a raised eyebrow:
“You’re the only woman in your company?!?
What’s wrong with you / them / society / _______? (fill in the blank)”
The next question is always:
“So, what’s it like?”
Most of the time, despite being the only woman, I don’t do the Feminist Warrior thing much.
It’s not that I’m not a feminist, it’s just that the whole warrior thing isn’t really my scene. Mind you push me into a corner and I’ll fight for my side in the battle of the sexes like a bloody Joan of Arc!
Examples?
One such occasion was the time the whole team went go-karting.
It all started when Doron , our COO, sent an email telling us to come with closed shoes and no skirts.
Hear that boys?
No skirts on the go-karts!
Boys will be boys, so obviously we had a race…
We broke up in to threesomes.
My team mates?
Team leader Guy Halawi, and our ‘slightly competitive’ CEO – Tal Keinan.
I’m not one to stress about the differences between men and women but I was feeling the pressure something fierce. I could already hear the “women can’t drive” jokes that would echo round the office for the rest of the month.
I was representing women everywhere.
I had to win this race!
Racing Girls Rock! (image by torley)
Off track
Off the record, I’d be inclined to agree that men drive better than women (you CANNOT quote me on this). I give men that much. Women can do two things at once, (some) men drive better.
Lap one
I press the pedal-to-the-metal.
Nothing much happens.
I’m a full feisty 150 centimeters tall.
I’m too far from the pedal.
I get a cushion.
As if the kiddy helmet wasn’t embarrassing enough…
Lap 2
I win a few laps and manage to take a few of the guys. Yay for me.
Lap 3
I’m not doing too bad…
We switch places.
Guy does a great job as always.
The last switch and Tal finishes the race.
It was a good race.
We won 1st place!
I can breathe again.
The team with the little woman won the gold medal.
The icing on the cake?
Turns out
I drove the fastest lap…
: )