When I was fresh out of University, I got a job as a Financial Service Advisor at a Bank in Denmark. I was hired at the same time as a guy I went to University with. I worked at this bank for nearly 7 years and regularly I experienced (male) customers who refused to have me as their advisor because I was a young woman, so they did not think that I was capable of advice about their finances. Not once did my male colleague experience this even though we were the same age and had the same tenue. Apart from this hurting my feelings, it also hurt my development and my possibility to gain experience. If this bank needed to promote one of us, they would most likely choose him as he had gained more experience and developed faster than me. He had developed faster than I had because that opportunity was taken away from me – Only because I am a woman.
Christina Sonne, HR Manager, Foundever Denmark