Rise Up…

 

Dealing with gender inequality and workplace sexual harassment has been a constant most of my professional life.

I have endured endless attacks.

This is a deeply personal issue.

I have pushed back more times than I care to remember.

I have attempted to follow the archaic rules.

Most claims have fallen on deaf ears.

Taking matters into my own hands. was the best strategy.

The press has been an effective tool.

I have been physically threatened, locked in rooms with sexist pigs, emphatically told that I would be taught who’s boss, verbally attacked.

Spanning the globe with rock bands, I had to deal with the opposite sex assuming I was their next conquest.

I have slept in hotel lobbies when hotels were sold-out because compromise was not on the table.

I was faced with similar circumstances while working in sports, another male dominated arena.

I must confess that some women were as detrimental to advancement and equality as the men.

I had to walk a fine line when I discovered that ever male with the same title as me was making double my salary.

I was told way to often that to get ahead I had to give head.

I never once succumbed.

I put on my big girl panties and my bulletproof vest, grabbed my verbal defense shield and waded through the extremely sexist jungle until the testosterone junkies realized that I was a force to be reckoned with.

Along the way, I lost a lot of respect for that certain class of women.

They used their sexuality to get ahead and to give head…that is a different discussion for another day.

Thankfully, in this day and age, women are using their head to advance, not giving it.

Obviously, there is still rampant sexism.

Who can deny this allegation when pigs like Donald Trump, Roger Ailes and Bill O’Reilly and their ilk are still amongst us.

Stop for a moment and listen to the drumbeat…it is now at a fevered pitch.

ALL women must raise up and end this injustice once and for all.

Thankfully, the issue is now front and center.

The crack in the glass ceiling is expanding.

Surprisingly, America is still uncomfortable with women in power, but there is progress.

As with my migraines, I have suffered silently, but the pain of what I have endured lingers.

At 16, as a favor, I was interviewed by a sports icon for an editing job.

Right off the bat, he told me that he never hires women because they menstruate.

My teenage retort, “That may be physiologically accurate, but by the way you talk, it sounds like you have your period everyday.”

I was hired on the spot and decades later, I continue to fight back against men who are continually on the rag.

 

*Photo:Commonlegalquestions.com


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One Comment

  1. Chloe Derksen says:

    You go girl!! It’s time to stand up and not take any of that crap. We deserve respect, period (see what I did there? ).

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