Why Women Must Fight for Their Rights - A Conversation with Wies Bratby
Why do women still have to fight for their rights and recognition? According to Wies Bratby, the answer lies in differences in upbringing. Bratby calls for a change in thinking and supports women with techniques to better assert their demands in professional life. At Creative Days 2023, Bratby and Anna Kohler discussed the importance of this change.
Wies Bratby believes that the reason many women have to fight for the things they want, need and deserve, especially at work, is that they grow up differently than men. They have internalized what they were taught, which is to think of others first, rather than asserting themselves and making demands, as adolescent men are taught to do.
Men are often very focused on hierarchy and where they are in the hierarchy. Everything is kind of competitive, whereas with women it's the opposite. They are brought up to make friends, not to be difficult and to focus on the common things.
Wies Bratby advocates a change in thinking among women, for example in wage negotiations, where they usually assume that they are paid because they do a good job. This is a mistake, Bratby says, because the still male-dominated world of work is hierarchical and characterized by competitiveness. She advocates for this and has developed various techniques to help women in Workshops on the way.
