Do you often feel discriminated against?
In connection with this year’s women’s day celebration in March, my younger sister who is a Seargeant in the Royal Norwegian Air Force was interviewed by an “investigative journalist” from NRK making a piece about women in traditionally male occupations. She recounted to me a part of the interview that did not make it past clipping. It went something like this:
Interviewer: Have you ever experienced gender discrimination?
Sunniva, female Air Force Sergeant: No, I can’t recall any situation where I have been discriminated against.
Interviewer (a little surprised): But, you must have… Eh, well, I have heard stories about women in the military…
Sunniva, female Air Force Sergeant: I can only speak for myself, but I have never experienced anything like that.
Interviewer: Well, have you ever experienced ALMOST being the victim of discrimination?
Sunniva, female Air Force Sergeant: Eh, no…
Interviewer: OK, so you don’t feel like you are being discriminated against, but do you think that some other women perhaps could feel like they were if they had your job?
…
I feel so much safer now that I know that the media is investigating hypothetical gender discrimination.
7 comments
Sounds like they were trying to find something that wasn’t there.
I work in a research lab. My gender is female. Most of my colleagues are men. To my mind women who are successful in male dominated areas most often don’t feel any different to men. What could be more natural than being successful in an area if you have a talent for it and are hardworking (no matter what your gender?) I think that gender is arbitrary anyway.
I think it’s a psychological setback to start feeling self-conscious about your gender. Feeling different or feeling that you are being perceived as being different is a blow to the morale.
However I had some trouble with my supervisor when i just came to the lab (he was a guy). I hadn’t ever considered discrimination or gender as a problem until my supervisor started hitting on me. I think romance at the workplace (especially if an affection is not returned:)) is an even a more annoying problem than discrimination. Chemistry becomes an issue when working with an opposite sex. When a colleague (or a boss) starts getting feelings for you the outcome may well be similar to that if he was a chauvinist, because he stops viewing you in professional way. But I guess getting feelings for someone is not as morally reprehensible as judging someone on the basis of their gender.
I was reading a wikipedia article about Amy Smith, an inventor and lecturer at MIT, and realized that the following paragraph fits in well with my previous post.
“Smith encourages women to become engineers although she dislikes being referred to as a woman engineer.[2] “Actually, because my class involves humanitarian engineering, I very rarely have more men than women. There have been times where there have been ten women and one man. This isn’t surprising, given that women often want to see an application to what they’re learning that they feel is worthwhile”, says Smith.[2] “But I’m not involved in any particular projects to encourage women engineers, because I dislike being referred to as a woman engineer. I don’t like programs that single out woman engineers as particular achievers just for being women. I think that it should be coincidental.”[2]“
@Anonymous:
I think you and Amy Smith are spot on.
I guess some people could feel discriminated against if they concentrated really hard on the matter. Yet some others are naturals. I guess the interviewer is one of the latter, and thus and example of a person whom might feel discriminated if they were doing your sister’s job.
Sunniva er min helt!
Tipper jeg hadde klart meg med herre str. small
På vår framtidige “School for exeptional young human beings that show extraordinary potential and a good sence of humor” – The XXPH, skal gymtimene byttes ut med en måned militærtjeneste i semesteret!
It is nice that you take it for granted that you won’t necessarely experience discrimination as a girl in the army, but don’t forget all those who have faught for it. … But as a journalist, wouldn’t I think that the fact that girls now feel equal in the army would be a good point in itself?
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