Krass: Only when you invent a MAN, your start-up is taken seriously!
A post shared by Kate Dwyer (@familypetty) on Sep 1, 2017 at 4:38 pm
Keith Mann is the classic buddy type: Former college football player, five years firmly in love, looking forward to his first child? just a nice guy. And besides, he is fictitious.
His spiritual mothers are Penelope Gazin and Kate Dwyer, founders of Witchsy, an online bizarre art shop, cool styles, and offbeat stuff. Business has been going well for a good year, and it's been pretty successful.
As women, they are not taken seriously
However, what they both feel right from the beginning: As women, they are not taken very seriously. "I think that by being young women, many people see what we do as 'cute hobby' or 'cute idea'," Kate told industry magazine Fast Company.
In their everyday lives, too, they discovered that their business partners were not treating them respectfully: a flippant tone in e-mails, brief answers that they often had to wait a long time for. Once they received an e-mail request, which started with the words "Okay, girls ...".
In the initial phase, even one of their web developers even tried to delete their page after Penelope had given him a basket.
The birth of Keith Mann
Because of all these experiences, they made a decision: Male support must come! So they invented Keith, whom they let communicate with external business partners in their place - mostly via e-mail.
A post shared by Witchsy (@shopwitchsy) on Aug 15, 2017 at 9:24 am
"It was a difference like day and night," Kate told the "Fast Company", "While I had to wait days for an answer, Keith not only got an answer with status update, but was also asked if there was anything else with which one could help him. "
The change in tone was not the only thing the two businesswomen were watching: Because people believed that a man was involved in business management, they rated Witchsy differently.
Keith was especially respected by a business associate with much more respect than Kate and Penelope: "Whenever he addressed Keith, he used his name, but he never spoke to us by name," reported Penelope.
Especially the IT industry has a sexism problem
The fact that Keith Mann has worked so well for Witchsy, should not be a big surprise for many: Especially in the IT industry, women often have a hard time.
After recently a former Google employee said in a manifesto that women had a poorer understanding of IT issues than men, Keith Mann only shows what might be suspected: The IT industry has a huge sexism problem.
A post shared by Witchsy (@shopwitchsy) on Jul 27, 2017 at 15:47
And now? Now all the more!
Kate and Penelope do not let the wind take their breath away. "Probably it could have upset us all," said Kate.
"Wow, do people really treat this imaginary colleague more respectfully than we do, but we just see it this way: it's obviously an aspect of this world we're in. But we want that and we'll do it! "
After Kate and Penelope have now publicly admitted their fraud in self-defense, Keith is currently on leave. In the end, one thing is clear: the two of them will certainly pack it without a man.
