We all marched for our very own personal reasons… it wasn’t all about politics (for me anyway)..well maybe a little.. but I didn’t want to make it all about that.

As a teenager in the 1970s, I considered myself a “women’s libber.”  I wasn’t militant about it, but even though I never held a job myself back in those times, I believed that women should be given all of the same opportunities in the workplace as men.  I didn’t want to be called a “tomboy” and as a 16-year-old, I didn’t understand why certain things like fishing, hunting, working on cars, building things and the use of power tools were considered things for boys, while cooking, sewing, and general homemaking were things girls were supposed to do. I wasn’t buying any of it. In 1978, I became one of the first female firefighters to work for the California Department of Forestry. I wrote a book about it called Fire Girl.

So being that spitfire young woman who I was, I picked male-dominated jobs most of my working career.  Working in a “man’s world” I grew a thick skin.   “Dirty” jokes, sexual innuendo were commonplace.  You either put up with it or you got out.   Simple.   I put up with it.  I laughed right along with the boys. As long as I wasn’t being physically assaulted, I didn’t really care about “words” (too much).   But was any of this right?  In my opinion, NO!  Call me a sissy, a snowflake, a wimp, a pansy, sensitive.  Go ahead… those are just words.. and personally, I’m not afraid of those words. If you have to resort to calling me names… then what does that say about YOU?  Hmmmm….

CHANGE

How should this change?  Any place of employment shouldn’t be  gender-biased ANY LONGER. Those days are OVER!   Women NOR men should have to put up with unkindness from their bosses or co-workers.  People have to make a living and feed their families. It all comes down to treating others how YOU would like to be treated!  We are all HUMANS living on this round blue ball. Can’t we go to work feeling safe, comfortable and have some fun that’s not at the expense of others.  Can’t we all go to work without hostility?

My first job experience

I remember my very first job at 17, I was assaulted by the owner of the restaurant where I worked.  I was summoned to his office where he grabbed me and pulled me down onto his lap and started grabbing my ass. As he tried to stick his hand down my jeans I was able to pry myself away and ran back to the safety of the kitchen. I quit that job immediately.  I had other instances of sexual harassment over the years, but nothing as physical as that.  My mother also had a story from the early 1970s where one of her male co-workers pulled his pants down in front of her on the job as a “joke”. Back in those days, as women, you said nothing if you wanted to keep your job.

So, for the above reasons, I marched… and here is my latest episode of TwylaWorld!