The unspoken tax women pay in the workplace

THERE is a quiet truth many working women carry in their hearts, even when they cannot say it aloud: some days, it feels as though we are paying a tax simply for being women.

- RUBENE RAMDAS.

A tax measured not in money, but in effort. In scrutiny. In expectations. In the endless work of having to prove again and again — what is freely assumed of others.

Across my 25 years in the working world, I have watched this truth unfold in boardrooms, in open-plan offices, in interviews, and in the quiet corners where women gather to breathe for a moment before returning to their professional armour. I have lived it, too.

The tax of proving yourself twice

Many women learn early that competence is not automatically attributed to them. While their male colleagues often walk into a room presumed capable, a woman must often demonstrate her worth before she is believed. She arrives prepared. Then over-prepared. She anticipates questions, rehearses responses, checks her work twice, and then once more for luck.

Meanwhile, the world around her quietly extends grace to her male colleague - forgiving his mistakes, praising his potential, trusting him without requiring proof. This is one form of the unspoken tax: women must be exceptional just to be seen as equal.