In this day and age, there is no doubt that a woman will use her gender as an advantage in an “illegitimate career gain” if need be. The fact that gender is still a societal issue that discriminates against us forces us to combat against men in society and bare all arms necessary against them. We have overcome huge discrimination and resistance as being subordinates and weak and unintelligent, but times have changed and not only are women intelligent, but powerful as well.
There is a huge shift in the military where woman are now men’s superiors and I can see how that has had impact on men in the military. I have heard how degrading it is by young men I personally know in the marines also. I have heard through my girlfriend who was a sergeant how tough it was to gain the respect of her soldiers as her being their superior. Men and women of today are still struggling in how to accommodate the shared roles without gender playing an issue.
My girlfriend mentioned how it was very difficult in the beginning to gain the respect and the discipline from them when commanding direction to her soldiers. She said that they would work slower and take their time to make her look bad. She mentioned they would sabotage her in various ways, but she said that they wanted her to quit. They wanted to break her because they thought that they could since she was, “a girl.” They didn’t know who they were messing with.
To make a point, me, they could have broken. I would have cried. But that is why I don’t put myself in those types of jobs. Her however, they messed up. They ended up being the crybabies that in the end couldn’t do as she said. One gave her so much hell when she gave it back, he ended up taking a discharge (I’m not exactly sure what she called it.) In the end, the rest of the defiant soldiers ended up allowing her to lead them and never gave her any more problems.
Unfortunately, women have to deal with so much resistance in the work force. We have to deal with gender discrimination, sexual harassment, scrutiny from others and many other types of harassments that if you are disliked by anyone around you, you will be forced to deal with. That is why as women we have to stand together and stay strong and keep pushing forward to gain more opportunities, especially equal wage salaries as men.
Monika's Blog 