Sexism in my Time

In my youth, discrimination against people because of race, ethnicity or religion, although frowned upon, didn’t break the law. However, people accepted discrimination because of gender.

            As a young woman, I took a series of aptitude tests. After I submitted my answers to the teacher and he graded them, he said “It’s too bad you’re a woman, you would have made a good engineer. Since you’re female, you’d be better off as a nurse.”

            Now the sad part of this is not so much that he said it, but that I believed it. I thought Oh no, I couldn’t be an engineer. And so, I went to nursing school. I don’t regret my years as a nurse, I loved it, but I regret there weren’t many options open to me. The accepted careers for women in the 1950's included teaching, nursing or secretary. 

            Even in the predominantly female profession of nursing, I encountered sex discrimination. In conversation with a male nurse, one of the very few I’d met, he told me he made more money than me. I approached the Directress of Nursing and asked why. Mr. Henderson had no more schooling, experience or seniority than me. She answered “He makes more money because he’s a man.”

            “What has that got to do with it?” I asked.

            “He has a family to support.”

            “Well so do I.”

            Then she said, “You can get welfare.”

            ” But I choose not to get welfare. I support my children myself,” I said.

            “Then that’s your decision.”

            A few years later, as I shopped for my children’s school clothes; a woman approached with a clipboard.

            “Do you have a J.C. Penny’s charge card?” she asked.

            “No.”

            “If you open an account today, you can charge up to one hundred dollars’ worth of merchandise right away and not get billed for two months.”

            That sounded good to me so I agreed.

            She asked my name, address, etc. and then said “husband’s name?”

            “No husband,” I answered.

            She put the clipboard down. “I’m sorry,” she said “We’ll have to check your credit before issuing a charge card to you. You won’t be able to charge anything today until you get approval.”

            I said “You mean to tell me that all I had to do was give you a man’s name and I get instant credit?”

            “Unfortunately, that’s how it works,” she said.

            With a wry smile, I said “Well honey, if I was still married to the bum, you’d never get paid.”     

            We’ve come a long way from those days of the 1950's. No one would think of telling a young woman today, she can’t be something because she is female. We have female mayors, governors, and supreme court justices.

            Next stop- The Presidency!