By Owen Rogers and Bryce Schmidt.
Transcript
Bryce: Welcome back to Yo, is This Sexist? I’m Bryce Schmidt.
Owen: And I’m Owen Rogers.
Bryce: And today we are going to talk about sexism in the workplace, Owen, you’ve got a story for us, go off!
Owen: So, I am one of seven kids, yep, a lot of kids… Umm… and one of my older sisters is an emergency medicine doctor in Philadelphia. So, she was leaving her shift a few months ago with a bunch of her coworkers, and right as she exists the hospital she just sees a guy riding his bike on the street and boom, he just gets hit by a car, so immediately, you know, her “medical juices” you know start flowing and she just runs over there umm and starts helping him on the ground like and all of her coworkers came to help too. But as she’s down helping him on the ground some bystand on the side just wanted it and literally yelled “can we get a doctor over here?!? Which is…. It’s funny because my sister and her coworkers, the only doctors there, were female, and the only nurses there were male. But, so many times in society we see situations like this, where, even if this man may not have meant to say, or make that assumption, he still did it and it’s still discriminatory and it’s even more of a sign that it’s rooted in something systemic. So, I think, Bryce, you have a really good story about this too… umm that relates.
Bryce: Yeah umm, commenting on yours, that could also have been a heat of the moment thing like uhh, you know, someone just got hit obviously on their bike but it also shows systematic sexism because you see, like, like there are doctors coming out like with their lab coats on, you know, the whole shebang, like look like doctors and this guy’s still like “hey can we get a doctor over here?!?” because he’s expecting, you know, a male, to come out. You know, there’s qualified females right there.
Owen: Yeah, no, and they literally had their names, you know, sewn into their white coats, they all have their white coats still on, and it just shows that in the heat of the moment you might not think but that’s clearly then an implicit bias which is indicative of a more deeply, deeper rooted systemic injustice. So, your story I thought was great too.
Bryce: Yeah yeah my mom you know middle class working woman, works in the factories like works over at Honda in Marysville, you know always, uhh, wants to promote her career, you know, she’s a single mom so she’s trying to make the best for herself you know getting promotions getting more money and stuff and you know it always seems like she’s like oh, you know I applied to this new promotion etcetera and you know it always seems like it comes back and a male always gets that promotion or like Honda isn’t a pretty male dominated place but still we need to show like females in the workplace more respect getting those higher positions, you know, climbing the ladder.
Owen: yeah no I totally agree, I totally agree just, piggybacking off of that story a little bit, you know, it’s way too common that we see this in the workplace. It’s way too common that we see these disparities between who gets hired, who gets promoted, how much money they’re paid, and, umm, you had some great statistics to, umm, you know, that really showed how profound of a problem that is in our society.
Bryce: Yeah, uh, I got some stats right here actually I found this from themuse.com first seven stats for you all right and then, uh, we can give our opinion on each stat if you feel like it, or I can move on, uh… First stat, “men hold 62% of manager positions to women’s 38%, and it gets worse higher up.” I have a, uh, another stat coming up from a different website to showcase this, uh, later on, but, uh, thoughts on that one?
Owen: I am not surprised but I am not happy about it, its, um, something we have seen for way way way too long, um, for every 100 men promoted to manager only 85 women were promoted. Just, numbers like that just make you see how big of an issue this in society and really comprehend like what can we do to change this because it is something that’s deeply rooted in a lot of these power structures.
Bryce: Right right right, uh, next stat for you, “women are less likely to have access to senior leaders” so basically like the boss boss, less likely to be able to contact them for stuff concerning the workplace, um, maybe how the workplace is going and stuff like that.
Owen: Yeah that’s another disturbing statistic right there I mean it all happens way too often and it’s something that we see not just in business not just in the medical field but it’s it’s all across all different market sectors across all different jobs. I hope that our stories showcase that as well because it’s something that we really feel strongly about something that you know needs change and I feel like it’s time that we could enact some change.
Bryce: Right right right third stat for you, “woman are twice as likely to be mistaken for much more junior employees and more likely to deal with discrimination, 64 percent of women facing microaggressions in the workplace. Just another stat that you know you you wanna roll your eyes and you know you we can’t have this in society and it’s just not right like women need to be respected in the workplace more but that’s all you can say on it like there needs to be a change.
Owen: Well I totally agree I totally agree.
Bryce: All right the next stat for you, “women are far more likely to be only and suffer more for it when they are” so that’s essentially saying like oh they’re “only” a woman like they can only do so much which you know you you can’t you can’t do that like you know women can do as much as men can and in the workplace and. You can’t you can’t say only to that.
Owen: Oh, continue.
Bryce: I was just gonna say women in some cases like are more advanced than men and can probably do the job better in some cases.
Owen: Of course, of course and I think that is definitely indicative of the othering that we’re about to talk about because you know when they do lack access to those power structures. When they cannot do anything to succeed in the workplace, be promoted do well without the help of the man like that uh, or without discrimination and without the help of a man then as the statistic suggested then that’s clearly indicative of something that’s really wrong with the way that women are treated in the workplace.
Bryce: Right right I completely agree, number 5, “35 percent of woman have been sexually harassed at work.” You can’t have it in the workplace you know you gotta respect one another just as much. Just shows how our system, I’m sure these numbers were way higher back in the past but still shows how we have so much to grow in society.
Owen: Yeah I know like you can think that everyone thinks and want everybody wants everything to be equal everyone wants things to be this way to the point that a lot of people just they, they overlook, they don’t think about “is this really still happening today?” like it’s 2020 like we’ve progressed in so many different ways in the country but at the same time we have to recognize the ways that we haven’t progressed, the things that we still need to work on, and sexism especially in the workplace is one of those places that we just really need to focus on and work on.
Bryce: I completely agree this is where I wanted to move on to a theory that I actually learned in my Comparative Studies class. From “The Second Sex” by Simon deBeauvoir, her theory on the other, umm, from Sparknotes it reads “the primary thesis is that men fundamentally oppressed women by characterizing them on every level as the other defined exclusively and opposite to men, man occupies the role of the self or subject, woman is the object, the other, he is essential, absolute and transcendant, and she is inessential, incomplete and mutilated. He extends out into the world to impose his will on it, whereas woman is doomed to immanence, or inwardness. He creates, acts, invents; she waits for him to save her. This distinction is the basis of all de Beauvoir’s later arguments.” Thoughts on the theory?
Owen:
Thoughts on the theory, I think it connects back to your statistics, it connects back to both of our stories where it in my situation with my sister there’s so many situations where not even just in the hospital even in med school where she experienced instances of othering where men are given opportunities blatantly over her just on the basis of her being a woman and I think that I think that othering is part of the problem with you know with regards to sexism in the United States and in the workplace because it has such a profound impact and some people might not be able to um, you know fully research into it and understand the topic but it’s something that is crucial it’s something that’s crucial that we all you know learn how to do better with how to improve upon on the way society functions now from these respects.
Bryce: Right I just thought, like we have to view women as like the same as us, we can’t view them as the other or else like we’re just going to dilute like all the progress we’ve made in our society like it’s just all going to go away if we don’t view them as like the same as ourselves.
Owen: Yeah course of course.
Bryce: Go ahead.
Owen: Um I was just gonna say that, you know, um, it’s clear it’s become crystal clear I I think through both of our stories, through the statistics, um, through our description of othering and how it relates, um, that we have a real systemic injustice here that needs correcting I mean as you said it’s just we can’t have this anymore in society and and like I was saying earlier like we have progressed in society so far in so many different ways but there’s a way that we all have to go take a step back and recognize “Hey we need to do better and what can we do individually to make this a better situation and remediate all of the issues associated with it.
Bryce: And I think that’s a good stopping point for the day, thank you guys, we appreciate you guys listening to us and we hope to catch you soon on hey, is this sexist.