I thought this had stopped happening, but I mentioned something that I through would be a good idea in a meeting, and no comment was made after I said it. Some time later, this chap immediately accross from me said my idea, and the chair of the meeting said it was a good idea. For the first time, I took the advice of a woman at National Grid (she told me a couple of years back how she handled this situation.) I said - "Volker, - yes - that is a great idea - it was a great idea when I said it 10 minutes ago too'. He looked crestfallen, so perhaps he didnt do it on purpose - but it did make it clear that he hadnt been listening when I spoke.

I was told by a former dean that I would not have his support for a promotion to senior lecturer unless I published four top quality papers per year. Other colleagues were not held to the same standards for promotion.

I had a line manager who constantly ignored my ideas in meetings. When the same ideas were later suggested by a male colleague in the same meeting they were great ideas we should all get behind. I felt like my voice was never heard.

I suggested my manager to write a review paper and he answered that was a waste of time. A year later, a male colleague also under his supervision suggests him to write one and he thinks it is a great opportunity. After talking to him, he now thinks I could write one, that it would be great for me. He doesn't seem to remember our previous conversation was the same but instead discouraging me.

This manager used to call me by another woman's name. The other woman worked in our office, but he simply couldn't tell us apart. I thought this was really rude of him.

I had a manager who wouldn't speak to me at all. Someone in the office told me that when he took against you, you had had it! I think that this was true because I spent a miserable six months working for him before leaving. He completely dented my confidence. It seemed so weird that he would not even say hello to me in the morning whereas he said hello to everyone else. I would get so frustrated by the whole thing and would cry in the evenings because I didnt understand why I was being singled out for his dislike

In a meeting where I should have equal status with everyone else in the room, I mentioned that we should include a regular check on a specific project area on a monthly basis because we needed to be sure that it wasnt becoming an 'issue area' for us. The person who was running the meeting just looked at me long and hard and then carried on without commenting. I felt that this was a put down. There was no recognition that I had said anything at all. Later, I noticed that my suggestion had been taken up, but it would have been nice to have a polite recognition that I had spoken.

I was at a meeting and was being squeezed out of the conversation by a new guy on the team. Whenever there was a gap in the conversation he jumped in and at one point he looked at me pointedly, as if to say; 'Ha - got there before you'. It soured my work with the team in the future. I just didnt want to be part of the group he was in. It felt as though it had raised the bar on 'nastiness' on what had been, previously, a lovely team to work in.