Today has been an interesting day of reflection. 

Learning new things …
Seeing new ways of viewing things …

What did I learn today?

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✅ – The “pink tax”
Honestly, this was something I was vaguely aware of, but today, it became crystal clear how much of a thing this is. If you don’t know, it is basically businesses charging women more than men for identical or similar items. Thanks to Samantha Harman for more clearly opening my eyes to this.

Today, an image has been flying around social media with two images: a pair of shorts for men, and a pair of shorts for women. The pattern on the shorts were identical. The men’s shorts clearly use much more fabric to produce over the women’s shorts. The price?

Men – $88USD
Women – $168USD

The business is charging women nearly TWICE the amount than men, and for less material. This is the “pink tax”.

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What new things did I learn to view differently?

✅ – People > Users

Jessica Barker recently wrote a blog post about this, and it opened up my eyes. Calling people ‘users’ really dehumanizes them, as opposed to calling them ‘people’. In the security world, especially those who are working in the awareness space (like I’m trying to), dehumanizing people is contrary to what we should be doing. We should be more empathic and understanding of them to better protect them. We should humanize them MORE, not less. Read her article here: https://lnkd.in/eWE_DR94

✅ – Don’t be in the business of saying ‘no’

This one was a self-realization today. From my 20+ years in tech/desktop support, I’ve worked in places where IT was typically in the business of telling people (almost said ‘users’, but caught myself 😂) no. From a security viewpoint, I need to look at people through their eyes, and understand what it is they need to accomplish their work. To not tell them ‘no’, but to work with them to see what can be done so they can do what they need to do, and also keep themselves, and the business, secure.

Learning and growing is a good thing.