AND THE DISCRIMINATION CONTINUES...

[Anonymous <no_email@fake.address>]

The first time I was sexually harassed, I was fifteen years old 
and working my first job as a check out clerk.  The older "courtesy clerk manager" 
used to flirt with me, eventually demanded kisses, and pursued this behavior until 
I quit several months later.  I felt ashamed, frustrated, angry...and helpless.  
I didn't even know that I didn't have to go along with it.
The second time I was harassed, I was working as an assistant for a vet office 
during college. The veternarian liked to make jokes, some to my face and others 
to my back (other female co-workers would report to me later) about how women 
belonged in the kitchen, and needed practice feeding the animals to learn 
their proper role of "feeding a man."  He screamed, yelled, and belittled
 me on a daily basis, and when I finally got up the nerve to confront him,in 
tears, he made a joke of it and said "It's not like I asked you to get up 
on the table in a skirt and dance around, ha ha."  Another female co-worker 
later confided in me that she has experienced the same harassment.  Both of 
us were too intimidated and embarassed to report it...we thought we were "making too much 
of it."
Later, I worked for a transportation company as a dispatcher, supervising 4-6 male 
truck drivers.  I won't even detail the inappropriate sexual comments and jokes that 
went on there, but I'm sure you can imagine.  The joke around the office was that I was
 the "little feminist," and didn't like to hear any talk about women.  Not that this 
stopped the inappropriate comments, excessive profanity, or yelling.
Now, I work as a correctional educator in a state correctional facility.  I have graduated 
from college, and finally pursuing the work I always dreamed of in the criminal justice system. 
However, I'm SERIOUSLY considering leaving the field all together. The discrimination 
and harassment I experience on a DAILY basis comes more from the correctional staff 
and administration than the sex offenders I work with.  I've been ignored as a member 
of my team during important meetings, treated rudely, made fun of, touched inappropriately, 
and had my value as a professional repeatedly questioned.  My co-worker, the only male on 
our team, continously makes comments about my "cute" appearance and physique, and the 
correctional administration always defers to him in meetings and classes, even 
though we are a self-directed team and he contributes the least to our program. 
I've started wearing baggier and baggier clothes, stopped wearing makeup, and tried 
to act even more assertive than I already am.  It doesn't work. Sometimes I wonder 
if I will ever be taken seriously as a professional (who happens to be a woman) 
in such a male-dominated field.  I'm tired of feeling embarrassed for being female, 
and always having to prove myself...to no avail.  Will it EVER change???