I am one of those women
On March 1, a segment appeared on the PBS nightly Newshour dealing with sexual harassment and retaliation in the U.S. Forest Service. I’ve been listening to the litany of complaints by women over the last month or so regarding how they’ve dealt with sexual harassment and worse in one setting or another — professionally and personally.
But, for some reason, last night’s information prompted me to speak out while other revelations have not. I guess it’s because one does not expect women who are working for the Forest Service, fighting fires and such, to face this. One could argue that women who go into the beauty queen arena and who have, by virtue of that endeavor, asked people to rate them on their face and body should not be surprised or insulted when some “underrate” them and not be insulted or complain. Or when women go into the entertainment industry that is loaded with many “lizard-brained” men and the women often are expected to remove their clothes as part of their work that they would be surprised when that turns on them in such an ugly way. And no, I am not saying they deserve it. What I am saying is that some situations just seem to make more sense than others.
But the story about the Forest Service gals really lit a fire under me. During one of the interviews, the comment was made that she didn’t complain about the situation she faced because she didn’t want to be labeled one of “those” women, meaning a complainer who would then face ostracism and worse, possibly loss of job. I thought of my own situation while working for an oil company in Alaska and thought to myself, “I am one of those women, and I did speak out!”
Now, I realize that not all women are like me. Many like to be liked more than I do. That’s not to say that I don’t like for people to like me, but I’m not going to base my behavior ultimately on whether others will “like” it.
Some might say my situation is similar to that of women who go into the entertainment industry where exist the “lizard-brained” men I referenced since oilfield work is basically a man’s environment, so what would I expect but sexist and inappropriate behavior, right? That may be true, but the company for which I worked had a sexual harassment policy. I expected them to live up to that. Also, the company had many fine men who did not fit the “lizard brain” description.
My job included getting mail for our facility and distributing it. In that mail were often “girly” photos (to use a euphemistic term) that I found inappropriate for the workplace and which I felt I should not have to view. I expressed this to my boss, who was unsympathetic and sent me to our human resource director, who was an old codger experienced in dealing with union busting and cared little about my complaint. I was told it was part of my job (no reference to the company’s sexual harassment policy by him, although his HR department had issued the policy!) and that if I didn’t want to do it I was effectively tendering my resignation.
Now, just as the women who work in the entertainment industry who don’t want to lose their opportunities to pursue their careers, I, too, was faced with a dilemma. Given that I had a young daughter to support and was a single mom, basically (that’s another story), I decided to bide my time. I knew that superintendents in our facility were often short-lived because they were always looking for other opportunities. When my superintendent was replaced, I broached the issue again. This time, I had a man who was more sympathetic and actually believed in supporting the company policy. He told me that when I found such items in the mail I should bring them to him, and he would “personally” deliver them to the recipient. That seemed to take care of the problem, and not long after that I noticed there were fewer and fewer objectionable items.
There were other issues like the one-bathroom-for-all situation. When I first arrived to work at the facility, there was one bathroom downstairs from my office. When I had to use the bathroom, I was either confronted by having a man already there (they, of course, never locked the door) or having someone bang on the door to get in while I was using the room. Needless to say, several guys could use the room at once, but when I was in there, it was a one-person room. Again, another insightful and understanding boss finally came to the rescue and had a bathroom constructed on our floor, which I and other women greatly appreciated.
There were other incidents, too, which I won’t detail. I guess what I’m saying is that there are those who will speak out in spite of what consequences may face them, and there are those who will continue to live with the situation for fear of losing their jobs, not being liked, being ostracized, and such. We all have choices in this life. Many are speaking out now who did not do so before. It’s not the end of the world to speak out. It may be the beginning of a new world. Your choice.
The viewpoints expressed above are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of The Independent.
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