Breaking the glass ceiling imbeds shards of glass: Women & workplace discrimination

I’m in editing for the Carnival mode right now, but I must pass on a couple of things:

1. Connie Schultz’s Plain Dealer column from today. I agree with it. Some disclosure about her husband, Ohio’s junior U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D) being a signator to a letter asking for Ohio AG Marc Dann to resign could have/should have been worked in, but regardless of that, her point could not be more spot-on.

2. Lisa Rab’s column in the Cleveland Scene today about Schultz’s column from today. I do not agree with Rab. At all. I left a comment at the post but it’s not appearing yet (it’s been a few hours but hey - I’ve been sweeping out hundreds of pieces of spam every few hours and dumped some comments too so, I won’t be throwing rocks from a glass house on that).

Here’s my comment to Rab:

Lisa, I’m going to agree and disagree.

I agree that it’s not news. But I disagree that that means we treat it like we treat the same behavior as seen in a movie.

It’s not okay and it’s never been okay. The fact that it’s written about openly doesn’t make it any more okay.

This isn’t unlike casino amendment arguments: everyone has one but us. And the parent’s retort, If your best friend jumped off a cliff, would you jump off a cliff too.

Please, do not confuse the outing of just how often this happens with it being okay for it to happen or not endangering career trajectories. I’m not sure how old you are, but I remember when the Lisa Steinberg case broke in NYC and from that point on, child abuse and domestic violence reporting was never the same, thank goodness.

This case is an enormous step backwards in sending the message that hostile work environments related to sexual harassment must not be tolerated.

I’d urge you, and the Free Times, to start reading up on study after study that show how fewer and fewer women are entering so many professions. In politics, there’s been a horrific stall in Ohio.

What are the causes? I don’t know any better than the reports coming out, but when Bill Harris says, it’s term limits you know they don’t know what they are talking about (term limits were arguably brought in to improve women’s chances!).

Anyway - you make Schultz’s column out to be histrionic and it’s not. She’s spot-on, Lisa.

I’m having a hard time understanding why you would mock Schultz’s perspective.

I’ve also solicited opinions from a couple of women for whom I have incredible respect. One outright disagrees with me and the other raised a number of other problems (all valid) related to coverage of Dann’s situation. So, no question, this is a lightening rod for women, not unlike the current Democratic presidential primary.

I don’t want to pin this yet as a generational issue but - I do wonder: if a woman has never gotten the glass shards stuck in her shoulders from what it feels like when you’re breaking through and into an all-male or mostly male bastion, can she really understand what it feels like to be embattled? Yes - that’s loaded. I’ve recently gone through several such experiences, in a variety of settings. And it’s made me absolutely livid at the thought that it’s okay to just say, “well, it happens.” Because it shouldn’t.

But am I being unfair? (Oy - does that invite a backlash! But that’s okay - I really want to hear it.)

I’ve suggested that we try to find a public venue to hold some kind of a conference/session or seminar during which women could exchange their thoughts on workplace discrimination, hostile environment and so on. If you have ideas about that, or anything else related to the columns by Schultz and Rab, please do comment or e-mail me.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 12:44 pm May 7th, 2008 in Social Issues, Civil Rights, Law, Gender, Marc Dann, Scandal, Government, Media, Culture, Ohio, Women, Politics

Comments

One Response to “Breaking the glass ceiling imbeds shards of glass: Women & workplace discrimination”

1 John Ettorre on May 9th, 2008 9:17 am

Lisa says it well. There’s probably just a natural generational divide on this, whether one is looking at it from the point of view as a parent, or not. That’s mostly what it’s about. But post-Boomer women, I’ve also observed, are a lot less doctrinaire and knee-jerk about sisterhood issues.

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