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A page I follow currently has a post up asking women in corporate roles if they’ve ever been underpaid and how they found out.

I have never rolled my eyes so hard. And I’m an expert eye roller.

I think the easier question would be:
Who knows they are absolutely 💯 being paid equally?

Then they asked why women are underpaid.

At that point I almost needed emergency care from the eye strain.

Because the reality is painfully simple:
the system allows for it, rewards it, and normalises it.

When budgets tighten and bonuses are tied to reducing costs, women are often the ones expected to absorb the gap. Quietly. Professionally. Gratefully.

And too often nobody bats an eye.
Not even the women inside the system who help implement it, sometimes protecting their own internal corporate “brand” while doing it 😘

If someone finally calls it out, they’re told:
“You should appreciate the opportunity.”
“It’s great experience.”
“We’ll address it next salary review.”

Then comes the corporate breadcrumbing.
Tiny increases. Just enough to stop people walking.
Never enough to truly correct the imbalance.

But when things go sideways, when systems fail, clients explode, teams panic, and leadership suddenly needs saving...
everyone turns to Lucy.

Lucy who’s been there forever.
Lucy who knows everything.
Lucy who quietly carries institutional knowledge on her back.
Lucy who somehow makes the disaster survivable while everyone else scrambles.

And somehow Lucy is still expected to be grateful.

I know some businesses are genuinely trying to fix this.
But most still operate inside systems built around short-term profit, bonus structures, optics, and cost cutting dressed up as strategy.

That culture reinforces this every single day.

And as time keeps dragging me into older generations whether I like it or not, I look at the women coming behind me and wonder what all of this eventually becomes.

#womeninstreetphotography #commuter #corporatelife #genderimbalance #payequality

Transit State
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#womeninstreet #lightchasers #melbournestreetphotography #commuterlife

A little bit of magic
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#melbournestreetphotography #travel #metrotrains #commute

Somewhere I have never been

There are some views that remind you of every place including those you have yet to be.

#everydaymelbourne #commuterlife #streetphotography #womeninstreet #streetphotographymelbourne

Untitled
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#streetphotography #melbournestreetphotography #womeninstreet #commuterlife #everydaymelbourne

There is an ending and a beginning out there
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#womeninstreet #melbournestreetphotography #commuterlife #portraits

Tiamat
The cutest Rhino Beetle
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#bug #bugslife #insect #rhinobeetle

I saw you once

#streetphotography #melbournestreetphotography #womeninstreet #commuterlife #everydaymelbourne

I didn’t think I’d ever feel connected to a house.
But this one held our stories for well over a decade, the joy, the chaos, the heartbreaks and the growth.

Today I handed in the keys.

It's been a lot.

#home #bricksandmortar #stories #fourwalls #memories

This will always be one of my absolute favourite images.

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#commuterlife #melbournestreetphotography #womeninstreet #melbournemetro #lightchasers

I am currently stuck in a whirlwind period of "wtf" so just for a moment, let's all take a deep breath and enjoy the eye pleasing nature of some industrial architecture.

#urbanlandscapes #melbournestreetphotography #bluethings #ijustwantpotatoes

Hold your head up and find the light even when you're submerged in blue.
Stay safe in all this heat x
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#commuterlife #melbournestreetphotography #blue #womeninstreet #thisweekhasbeencrazy