Corporate America and the Witch Wound

I first learned about the concept of the witch wound a few years ago from a book called Witch: Unleashed. Untamed. Unapologetic. by Lisa Lister.

At first the title of the book really triggered me. 

Growing up in the Baptist religion, witchcraft was closely tied to the devil. 

I’d come across this book in the Instagram space and it sat in my screenshots of books for a hot minute as I worked up the courage to work through my own conditioning.

My entire perception of the mainstream concept of the word ‘witch’ was blown out of the water when I started tearing through the pages. 

It was eye opening to see how the word has been manipulated by society and the power removed entirely. 

The author cited that witches were essentially the healers back in the day. 

They were the ones who were using herbs, attuning with Mother Nature and their own intuitions to heal those in need. 

Eventually, men started venturing into these types of practices and becoming more of our mainstream ‘doctors,’ but in order to start moving business away from the women healers, the word ‘witch’ was manipulated to start to mean dark things. 

And nobody wanted to play with dark things in that Puritanical society. 

Thus leading to the witch hunts where society attempted to expose these so-called women who were playing in the dark magic that organized religion didn’t approve of. 

One way women could protect themselves was by calling other women out. 

If you labeled someone else a witch, you clearly couldn’t be one and were therefore safe from the hunt. 

An accepted practice leading to sisters calling out sisters, friends calling out friends.

Building a sense of betrayal and mistrust among women all in the name of self-preservation. 

Thus creating a witch wound pandemic that we see traces of in our modern, present day society. 

That’s right, Corporate America has a witch wound problem.

Over the course of my 11 year career, I’ve worked in several traditionally male dominated industries. 

The two biggest ones being big oil and tech. 

While working at an oil refinery, it was nothing for me to look around the room during meetings (yes, they were in person at that time) and recognize I was the only woman in the room. 

Even more often, I was also the youngest person in the room, which added an additional layer of complexity. 

I’d heard horror stories about the harassment and bullying that happened in these predominantly senior white male cultures and yet I didn’t experience any of it. 

I found the men were very respectful to me. 

My decisions were not questioned and I never felt belittled. 

My real issues came with the women. 

I ended up putting in my two weeks (I’d been tossing the idea around for a few months at this point) after my manager shared that a colleague had told her I was “running another business during work hours out of my office.”

That’s a whole other story but to the point of this discussion, everyone in my department was a woman. 

I had a feeling as to who it was and did recognize why they felt the need to accuse me of this unacceptable corporate practice AKA label me a witch based on their own insecurities.

Honestly, it was the push out that I needed from that role so I do appreciate the person who nudged me along. 

Every team I’ve ever joined has had a woman trying to be the alpha. 

Someone who feels they need to dominate you as the new person and show you that they are in charge as soon as you get on your first call with them. 

I’m thinking through this and realizing I’ve literally had a woman try to bully me on every team I’ve ever joined. 

And keep in mind, I worked in a Unionized Oil Refinery as a Human Resources Business Partner, I’m not intimidated by a lot of people. 

My typical practice in these situations is to try to fly under the radar and ultimately, kill them with kindness. 

I think it helps that I’m actually competent and they find me to not be a threat in the end. 

I try to see past their behavior and recognize that corporate cultures often encourage them to act as they think men would and there’s an underlying insecurity in their behavior.

I can think of several women just like this who I ultimately befriended in the end but not everyone has that type of experience. 

I have my own experiences with the witch wound in corporate America but this article really solidified that I’m not the only one who has witnessed these behaviors.

I’m not excusing the behavior of men in some situations but I do agree with the author that women have a role to play in this conundrum as well. 

Another piece of context to my experience that my husband once observed is that when something goes awry for me in the corporate world, I don’t typically jump to ‘it’s because I’m a woman.’

I think there’s moments of victim mentality that creep in allowing us as women to give our power away instead of taking responsibility for our own actions. 

Let’s keep in mind that yes, there are societal factors that play into disadvantages for women in the workplace but what can we be doing to also control our own outcomes and situations? 

Where are we giving our power away and saying ‘this is only happening to me because I’m a woman’ instead of claiming our own abilities and shifting to ‘this is happening to me and I’m a woman so watch out world.’