Tuesday, May 13

Fair Is Where You Get Cotton Candy

I'm not a man hater.
In fact, I'm very interested in them.

I have some male friends. I've spent lots of time with men in the workplace and I've been married a total of 26 years. The fact that it was 3 different men who shared that 26 years should actually enhance my credibility. I mean, I kept on trying to find the right fit.

And while it's no surprise that men and women are wired differently, my pal Hoss actually found the best way of explaining it when he posted this video on his blog.

This struggle to co-habitate and to understand one another has been going on since the beginning of time though. Look at Eve. We'll never really get the true story there. Was Eve really the one that was tempted or did Adam actually bite the apple and she just covered for him? We females always want to swoop in and fix things, don't we?

We've been grilled on playing nice and minding our manners, but too often our male counterparts never heard those messages, or just chose to ignore them altogether.

The clipping in the picture tells the story of Lilly Ledbetter, the Goodyear employee that was being shortchanged at work by what her lawyer called a "good old boys" network. When she was on the verge of retirement, a tipster revealed she was earning 79 cents on the dollar compared to her male counterparts in the same position. She sued and won, but the ruling was eventually overturned because she had waited too long. Turns out, if you're getting screwed and you don't notice it for 6 months, you're really screwed.

It's shocking, isn't it? And that's the part that always gets we women. We're shocked by the audacity. We never thought anyone would behave like that. How could they do that! Don't they have a conscience? And they seemed like such nice people...

I worked for a corporation, that when forced to cut salaries, came to me first because I was the only female executive. They rationalized that I should be able to endure a reduction in pay before my male colleagues because I was a woman and had a husband with a job.
I resigned. This wasn't the only sexist incident, but it was the icing on the cake.

I received a promotion at another corporation while in Texas and the man who stepped into my previous position started at a salary that was $5K more "because he had a family." Actually I am convinced it was because he had a penis.

And on top of that, they wanted me to help him with this position, while transitioning into my new one as well. I wasted no time in voicing my opinion. I have never seen so many grown men blush as a result of the word "penis." But they really should have been more embarrassed by their behavior.

It's what I refer to as the sheep hormone. If there is a group of men, the intelligence level will sink to the lowest IQ in the group and they will begin acting as one. Females, on the other hand, seem to thrive on individuality and fairness across the board.

Please don't misunderstand me. I'm not saying this is true of all men in all situations. My JB is honest and compassionate to a fault. But since I have found a man like this, I know that such men do exist.

The Supreme Court implied that Lily Ledbetter's lower pay was her own fault because she hadn't investigated her employer for sex discrimination sooner. Now isn't that a shame that you have to check up on everybody just to make sure they're doing what they should be doing?

7 comments:

cce said...

I just finished reading Are Men Necessary? so this post is timely. And while I am disgusted by your stories of inequity in the work place, I am not surprised. Sad though really, we've come so far and yet...

Unknown said...

Thanks for delurking the other day. Lovely blog you have here too. Enjoy this "crisp" spring weather.

Anonymous said...

That's just so wrong. I'm disgusted that this sort of thing is still going on in this day and age.

S said...

love the sheep hormone. you said it.

Anonymous said...

It's puzzling. All this time, all this legislation and something fundemental has yet to change in the makeup of so many men. I worry about my son. And I fear for my daughter facing a world run by and for men.

linda said...

Wrong is just not a big enough word for it. No wonder so many women are making decisions to strike out on their own in the business world. Who would want to put up with such sexism - it reminds me as to why I left the corporate world.

Unknown said...

Oh boy. You have said it so succinctly. I have been struggling taking care of my husband and keeping a job that supports the family for years. Now things are really bad and my stepson got involved and was going to help until my husband became a BIG ass. Well his brother's comment to me was that he was worried that my husband's son was spending too much time on this and that his work would be affected and his boss would notice. I said what about me? and he said ..well your a woman. I am so sick of them all!