'Oppressed, overlooked, invisible': How micro-feminism pushes back

These seemingly innocuous acts are part of a growing online trend dubbed micro-feminism.

Women have taken to social media to share their unique ways of pushing back against workplace gender discrimination.

Some lament being repeatedly being interrupted by mansplaining in meetings, having their work disregarded or organising tasks below their pay grade.

American television producer Ashley Chaney kick-started the trend with her viral TikTok.

Garnering almost three million views and more than six thousand comments, Ms Chaney's video shared how to be a "girl's girl, corporate edition".

"When I send an email to a CEO.. if the assistant is a female I will always, in the email to line, enter their address before the CEO," Ms Chaney said in her video.

"If I'm emailing a team, I will always address the woman first," she said.

Gender inequality is an ongoing issue with nearly two-thirds of Australian employers having gender pay gaps favouring men, according to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency.

WGA data shows that the average Australian gender pay gap is 21.7 per cent, and for every one dollar a man makes, women earn 78 cents.

Melbourne-based creative, Ella Lowgren listed her own ways of pushing back in an online clip.

"If I'm interrupted by men, I will then in turn interrupt them back but I will never interrupt another woman," Ms Lowgren said.

"When a man takes credit for a woman's work or idea, I will always call this out."

She said in corporate settings people often assumed women would book follow-up meetings but if everyone was on the same level, she typically asked men to do it.

At the Rockhampton, Queensland annual Beef Week, marketing agent Emma Williams asked women about their acts of resistance.

One woman said she'll always walk towards the driver's seat and another said she tried to not use 'just', exclamation points and apologise less.

While the term micro-feminism has blown-up online, small acts of resistance are not new.

University of South Australia gender and psychology researcher, Alice Rose, said the trend was a way to subtly pushback against the gender default.

"If you are feeling really oppressed, overlooked or invisible, being able to find a safe way to challenge those, it does help to give people a sense of self-efficacy," Ms Rose said.

"They feel like they have some agency within the inequitable system."

Ms Rose said many acts circulating online were fairly low risk and allowed individuals to challenge norms without jeopardising their careers.

Language shaped reality and creating a name for the practice could create more traction, Ms Rose said.

"It has some benefits in that it is raising awareness about the defaults in society and how those defaults are contributing to inequality," she said.

Ms Rose hoped that looking through a gendered-lens could be extended to other forms of societal defaults such as ability, race and sexuality.

While micro-feminism raised awareness of gendered structures, Ms Rose acknowledged it had limitations.

Focusing on the individual has psychological benefits but organisations needed to step up and push for change, she said.

"What we really need is organisational systems to change and be more proactive and sort of take that big step that is needed and manage backlash and resistance," she said.

University of Melbourne associate professor in gender and political science, Lauren Rosewarne, said Australia needed a cultural change.

"The idea of speaking up for colleagues or drawing attention to when someone is taking credit for your work, these aren't new things," she said.

Dr Rosewarne said social media could get people to think about existing gender discrimination and name their experience but was not necessarily a feminist revolution.

"Trying to say that this is somehow on women's shoulders to fix while going about their normal daily work lives is ridiculous and not fair," she said.

"The real change is going to happen when those with power give up some."

If you perform acts of micro-feminism in your day-to-day life, share your experiences in the comments.