I've always known that being a woman in a male-dominated industry would be an interesting experience. I expected to be treated a little differently, and have for the most part, grown to accept that fact. With that said, I still consider myself a feminist. I believe in equal rights for men and women and feel that women should be treated with the same amount of respect as men in professional settings. But I am enough of a realist to understand that is just not how things work.

After traveling to the Bahamas for an industry trade show last week, I couldn’t believe some of the things I faced being one of the few women in my industry, and being probably the youngest of those women. This is what I’ve learned from being a 23-year-old woman in a male-dominated industry.

It’s hard to be taken seriously.

I’m a young, attractive female, so I couldn’t possibly be smart. At least that seems to be the common thought among the vets of my industry. Honestly, I’m not sure if this has to do with me being young or with me being a woman (I assume it’s a mix of both).

For those of you who have never worked in doing trade shows, I’ll give you a brief overview. Trade shows are an opportunity for people in your industry to see your products on display and talk directly to your sales and technical team for more information on products. I learned very quickly during this show that when people approached my company’s booth, I was not the person they wanted to talk to (which is understandable because I am not in sales). Of course, since I do know quite about my company’s products and what we have to offer, I always try to make myself available for questions when the other members of our team are already engaged in a separate conversation. From this, I found that people visiting our booth did not want to hear what I had to say. They did not want to talk to me about our products or hear my insights on industry trends. Instead, I got brushed off and was shot strange looks as if I did not belong there.

There are a lot of double standards.

I really don’t know what trade shows are like in other industries, but it ours, they tend to involve drinking – a lot of drinking. Before this particular show, I was warned that it had the reputation of being “one big party”. That was an understatement. And I’m not talking about networking parties with a couple of cocktails; I’m talking about full-out raging, shutting down bars, and getting absolutely wasted with co-workers and bosses. From what I've noticed, this is less acceptable for the women to be doing than it is for the men.

My first night at the show, a bunch of people from my company were at the bar when the bar closed and we were forced to find somewhere else to go. At this point, it was still fairly early (maybe midnight), and while all the men rallied and decided to continue on to the next bar, the women decided it was time for bed. Being pretty stoked that I was in the Bahamas, I decided to stay out with the guys. The reaction I got for staying out late the night before was nothing like the reaction that men received. For them, it was normal, but for me, it was different. I saw my some of my colleagues grow stiff and uncomfortable when I told them that I stayed out the night before. While I completely understand that I was there to work and not to party, the difference in reactions that I received compared to the men that stayed out just as late with me the night before was pretty shocking.

Men are pigs.

I’m not going to pretend like this is something I didn’t already know, but wow, men can be pigs. Between the inappropriate comments, to the actual groping, I was absolutely disgusted by some of the behavior that I saw out of the men on this trip. Again, I know that it was “one big party”, but being in a professional setting, surrounded by other professionals in my industry, I was very off-taken by the for lack of a better word, sexual harassment, that I experienced during this show. It leads me to believe that may be the reason why there are so few women in the channel. There were many times during post-show events (bars, parties, clubs, etc.) where I found myself in very uncomfortable situations with men in the industry. The worst part was, when I politely asked them to stop touching me or expressed that they were making me feel uncomfortable, the inappropriateness did not stop. This is unacceptable!

If you are a woman reading this, you probably already know that working in a male-dominated industry is hard. We constantly have to fight to prove our intelligence, hard-work, and that we are not there to entertain the men of our industry. If you are a man reading this, please don’t be one of the people I described above. And to be clear, I did not write this article with the intent to attack men!

Women have begun to make great strides in earning our place in the workforce, but unfortunately, we all still face challenges. As a young woman working in a (much older) male-dominated industry, I’m reminded that I have to prove myself every single day.