I am a feminist. I won’t go into all the different ideologies, or reasons why. I simply believe that women and men are fundamentally equal, and should be treated as such. In a nutshell, that is feminism. This blog isn’t about attacking anyone’s personal beliefs- I’m not trying to start a war here. I just want to say how wonderful it is to work in an office environment where I am surrounded by smart, strong, sassy women. In a staff of about 24 people, there are about 5 males that work here. Don’t get me wrong- I love dudes. Ask anyone. It’s just…

I work in an industry that is traditionally dominated by males, and in a society that marginalizes* me and my ideas and contributions, simply because I’m female. I was told from a very young age that I could do anything a man can do, but I’m going to have to work twice as hard and get paid less. (I’m not complaining- these are my lemons, and I’ve made some pretty delicious lemonade out of them.)

It’s so refreshing to work in an environment where I never catch anyone checking out my rack instead of listening to what I’m saying. Except when I’m talking to Joy, but that’s not a sexual thing. She just has no class. When my ideas are shot down, I never wonder if it’s because I’ve got lady parts. I know it’s because they are stupid ideas. That promotion I got? It was because I was more suited to fill a different job, not because HR said we needed to promote a female. (Do we even have an HR department?)

We are also a group of women who don’t worry so much about what we are “supposed” to look like. Sure, there are some gals who are a bit more “girlie” and “put together” (Ashley, April, Melissa, I’m looking at you.) but if I want to come in wearing knee socks and a t shirt with a tie printed on it, no one thinks I’m going to do a worse job. Heck, sometimes, gals like to wear teal pants and a spatter painted t shirt with a gun necklace (Joy, I’m looking at you.) The point is, no one is dressing up for anyone else’s expectations, whatever those might be. We dress in what makes us comfortable.
It’s a great environment! I don’t know how it happened that way, and I don’t know how I ended up here, but I’m grateful. I guess Andy realized that if he needed something done right, he needed to call on some tough gals to get it done.

-Barb

* Author’s note: I was looking for an article to prove my point about the marginalization of women, so I Googled it. My search results prove my point better than any article ever could.