How to handle being given lower priority projects vs your male peers
I'm really frustrated with my manager. I want to be fair and pragmatic, but I've been put on flex priority support for multiple projects while I see what’s happening with everyone else. I’m almost at my one-year mark, but my male peers who were hired months after me and were hired in a level above me.
It feels like a total 'bro culture' where every guy is buddy-buddy with my manager. They’re always making jokes and it feels like it clearly affects how work is handed out. There was a project I explicitly told my manager I wanted, it had high visibility and I have the most context on it from my previous work. He told me 'yeah' in private, but then in a random standup, he just announced one of my newer peers would be taking it over. Even though I’d already started the work, he just put me on loan to another team.
I don’t feel like my growth is being prioritized at all. I want to give him the benefit of the doubt, but it feels sexist and I’m just sick and tired. I’ve worked so hard to prove myself and I just get dismissed while other men get the best projects. On top of that, while I'm on loan, I have to cross-coordinate with other teams that don't respect me when I’m just trying to do my job. I feel so bitter and fed up that I just want to disconnect and stop trying.
EDIT: Currently preparing to talk to him and be as neutral as possible, but I'm so fed up and angry, I feel like I can't talk about it without crying which is how I express my anger. I want to give my manager the benefit of the doubt since the others were hired at a level above me, but I feel like I'm being used as a 'fixer' for small flex projects while newer folks get the high-impact work I've already proven I can do.