A Day without Me

I work around a lot of men.  Even though I do, I have to say things have never been as bad as stories I've heard of other women working in such a male dominated environment.  For the most part, the guys in my office are well-behaved.  However, they do like to brag about the amount of money they make which - which is always mentioned - trumps my salary by quite a lot. They don't know what I make, but they know they make more.

And of course there are crude jokes or constant rude language that is thrown around quite easily.  I'm pretty sure if their wives were in the room, this wouldn't be happening.  But that's about it.  It's sometimes hard but not unbearable.

But, I still decided to participate in A Day without Women today.  You may ask why, if my job isn't so bad.  Well I did it for 2 reasons. The first requires context.  Yesterday, a colleague of mine needed to spray paint a label onto a travel case.  The last time he did this, he did it in our small closed room and nearly killed everyone with the stench.  This time he went out into the hall and did it instead, thankfully.  Then 4 other guys - all separately - started complaining to me about the smell.  Why I would care when I had nothing to do with it, is an entirely different can of worms, but I'm used to those.  Anyway, later another colleague was holding our door open, which was letting in the smell.  To which the original colleague said "Don't hold the door open too long or Kristen will get bitchy about the smell." 

I have to admit, this is the very first time I've ever been called that word.  And I know for a fact that I didn't deserve it.  I hadn't complained once.  The boys were complaining not me.  The fact that that word was thrown out so cavalierly really made my blood boil.  I know that other women have had to deal with this hundreds of times over.  At no point does any woman deserve that moniker. It's hurtful and just plain mean.

The second and most important reason is for the other women in my life that I know are getting paid less than their male counterparts.  These women like my mom, and my boss, and my friends work their butts off everyday and are still paid at a lower scale.  That's most assuredly not right.  They deserve so much more for their time, energy and creativity!

That's why I called out.  I wanted to stand my ground and have my voice be heard.  I'm not naive enough to think it will do any good, but it still felt good to take a stand.

PS: I wanted to find some video or picture to share what this day meant to me, but they all seemed wrong.  However, I found this song (of course it's a Broadway song!) last week which makes me giggle. It may not be the most Girl Power song (please, keep in mind it was written in the 50s). Though this song is supposed to be funny,  it is a nice thought to think that women are inspirational and are behind some amazing things even when we don't realize it.  Happy International Women's Day!