I'm on vacation and reading the book "The Good Girls Revolt" about the women at Newsweek magazine and how they sued the magazine in order to be writers, in the 1970s. It really occurred to me that I was not too far behind these women as I was coming up in my career. I, too, wanted to be a journalist. I had no idea in the 1970s that journalism was a difficult role for a woman. As I read the words of Lynn Povich about how she took stenography even though she had a Vassar degree, I thought back to my own high school days. I took typing class in high school, because my mom thought I should "have something to fall back on" in the event I could not get the job of my dreams someday. In other words, I could always fall back on being a secretary somewhere if a real career was not in the cards for me.
Although I do not consider myself old, I look back at some of the toxic sexist situations I have encountered in my life and shake my head: yes, I lived through some sexist times myself.
When I worked for a television station as a reporter in my college town, the news director would not put me on the air until I cut my long, curly hair. "I don't want you looking like a college kid," he growled, even though I was a college kid. And when it was convenient for the tv station, I was asked to do promotional commercials that ran during Saturday Night Live.....to draw in the younger audience, the college students. And when the same news director asked me to come over to his apartment to review tapes of my stories, the only way I got out of it was by letting him know my boyfriend would be joining me since he would like to hear the input, too. Needless to say, the invitation was rescinded, thankfully.
At one of my first jobs post-college, ironically at a weekly newsmagazine, I was literally chased around a piano at a New York party by one of the magazine's customers. I recall running up to my boss at the time, a New York woman about 10 years older than me, and asking what I should do. "Just remember he's a big customer, and try to be nice....and don't let him catch you" she advised. He didn't, but when I tell that story now it sounds like something out of an old Doris Day movie or 1960s sitcom, not something that happened in the early 1980s.
Through the years, I have been in work situations in which I have been groped, leered at, flirted with, and asked out.....all the while being married and trying to do a professional job at the companies I have worked at. I have reported some men's behavior to my companies in the past, and have never seen a man obviously reprimanded or penalized for boorish behavior. Are women still discriminated against in the workplace today? I would say yes. It can be overt sexist behavior, or more subtle discrimination that prevents women from moving ahead or getting certain jobs, or discourages women in other ways: to leave certain industries for ones that are more woman-friendly. Women still need to appear at the top of companies more often, and we will need to continue to ignore bad behavior around us, boost one another as much as we can, and be role models for those women younger and just coming into business. The younger women need to see our success, and perhaps hear our war stories, so that they can be encouraged and not discouraged themselves. It is good for them to see us helping one another, and not tearing one another down. You never know where life will lead you, and what nuggets from your past can shape someone else's future. As it turns out, I am glad I took typing in high school. Even though I could not have imagined it then, the typing skills I learned have been invaluable in today's computer age. Who knew? And who knows what words you tell a young woman can help her, too. You may tell her something that she can use to fall back on someday.
Although I do not consider myself old, I look back at some of the toxic sexist situations I have encountered in my life and shake my head: yes, I lived through some sexist times myself.
When I worked for a television station as a reporter in my college town, the news director would not put me on the air until I cut my long, curly hair. "I don't want you looking like a college kid," he growled, even though I was a college kid. And when it was convenient for the tv station, I was asked to do promotional commercials that ran during Saturday Night Live.....to draw in the younger audience, the college students. And when the same news director asked me to come over to his apartment to review tapes of my stories, the only way I got out of it was by letting him know my boyfriend would be joining me since he would like to hear the input, too. Needless to say, the invitation was rescinded, thankfully.
At one of my first jobs post-college, ironically at a weekly newsmagazine, I was literally chased around a piano at a New York party by one of the magazine's customers. I recall running up to my boss at the time, a New York woman about 10 years older than me, and asking what I should do. "Just remember he's a big customer, and try to be nice....and don't let him catch you" she advised. He didn't, but when I tell that story now it sounds like something out of an old Doris Day movie or 1960s sitcom, not something that happened in the early 1980s.
Through the years, I have been in work situations in which I have been groped, leered at, flirted with, and asked out.....all the while being married and trying to do a professional job at the companies I have worked at. I have reported some men's behavior to my companies in the past, and have never seen a man obviously reprimanded or penalized for boorish behavior. Are women still discriminated against in the workplace today? I would say yes. It can be overt sexist behavior, or more subtle discrimination that prevents women from moving ahead or getting certain jobs, or discourages women in other ways: to leave certain industries for ones that are more woman-friendly. Women still need to appear at the top of companies more often, and we will need to continue to ignore bad behavior around us, boost one another as much as we can, and be role models for those women younger and just coming into business. The younger women need to see our success, and perhaps hear our war stories, so that they can be encouraged and not discouraged themselves. It is good for them to see us helping one another, and not tearing one another down. You never know where life will lead you, and what nuggets from your past can shape someone else's future. As it turns out, I am glad I took typing in high school. Even though I could not have imagined it then, the typing skills I learned have been invaluable in today's computer age. Who knew? And who knows what words you tell a young woman can help her, too. You may tell her something that she can use to fall back on someday.
