I have struggled to write on this topic.

As I reflect on it now, I realize that the reason for this is that I have become numbed to the biases around me. I, after all, have more privileges than most. There are many things I can afford, and that buying power increases my choices; I work in a space where a decent percentage (more than one-third) of the businesses are women-owned; I can access a vast number of career opportunities, and I spend my days with women like me. I struggle to see bias because I’ve been socialized in and have created an environment that cushions me from it.

This past month I’ve been forced to think about bias.

I’ve wondered what I could do to become more aware of it and less cushioned. Who speaks up for the lady from the informal settlement who walks three kilometres to bring her child to the clinic, waits in line and is just about to be served, when a man walks in and is ushered to the front of that queue because he is a man doing exactly the same thing as she? What can the senior manager who is labelled aggressive because she dares to speak her mind at the weekly management meeting do? If her voice is silenced, what hope is there for the young house manager whose only desire is to provide for her young, fatherless children and who can never win with her boss because, in the words of her boss, “there is a way she doesn’t think?”

My first step is writing this article.

As I’ve written it, I’ve recognized my unfairness in labelling other women “emotional” simply because they allow themselves to feel in public. I know that I need to use my position on the management committee of the local clinic to get young mothers the same treatment as the fathers. I will be more empathetic towards the young executive who is working to get ahead and build a career for herself. I will regard my house manager with renewed respect. I, after all, cannot be in my privileged and cushioned work environment without her contribution to my home.

 I will guard against numbness.