Challenges for females in the workforce

Dude I am so slobbery after my farewell party. If this post sucks, I take full responsibility for the poor writing due to the fact that my eyes are involuntarily crossing. Hopefully writing about something serious & impassioned will clear this haze.

My good friend Bryce (whom is currently in a worse state than I) has always been my punching bag for work rage. He has suggested that I write about the relatable & political aspects of this. Hence this list of challenges for female professionals in the workforce, or maybe just challenges for working women.

I know very few women out of school that don't work full time. This day & age you don't even see them taking much time off after having children, so with that being said, and the majority of women being in the work-force, why are there still such gender wars?

PMS & emotions

I've come to accept that my brain veers towards emotion & not always logic. I am happy to recognize this, but will not be ashamed of this. 
Women are nurturers. We care deeply, are more sensitive & are less likely to hide how we feel. This combined with raging hormones that is PMS & you've got a tornado & a hurricane.
I can't tell you how many times my work has been criticized & I've told myself internally 
"Calm yourself, this is not the end of the world. Breath. Don't cry, don't cry, OH GOD STOP CRYING!" & then old waterworks comes out to give the manager's office a sprinkling of salty despair. 
It is not for lack of wanting to contain myself, and certainly not a manipulation tool. There is nothing I hate more than trying to come across as strong, empowered & in control woman & ultimately falling apart in my emotions, but guess what, I'm not changing fast.

I would never say that all women are like me, however I do feel that more can relate to that persona than the stone-faced, fire someone without even blinking an eye power woman Marie-Claire & Elle tout about these days.  This is how we're put together, so why should we be ashamed?

I would much rather work for someone who genuinely cares for my well being than a woman who treats me like an object. Just as I would rather hire someone who is effected by my constructive criticism than someone who is indifferent to it. 
That being said, I feel that men, and those able to better conceal their feelings may have an upper-edge on us just because they are less work for their superiors & may be considered less 'high maintenance'.

The solution to this? My best guess would be to remember your fellow women as you climb up your chain of command. As you shift from employee, to supervisor to manager to director, or however your ladder works, don't always choose the path of least resistance. We need to pull up our panties & remember that people are complex & not always easy to deal with, but that doesn't mean they are not the best people for our jobs.

Women VS women competition

I for one, utter a sigh of dread as soon as I go for any kind of interview & see that it will be a women, or worse women interviewing me. 
I hate being in training/focus group with a predominantly female crowd. I am ashamed to admit that I have moulded myself in to the pattern of thinking that if a female is not paid to help me, they are against me.'Sisterly love' has turned itself in to feminine rivalry.
I don't know how this started. It's probably men's fault. they're usually to blame :p

I don't know what the solution for this is either other than to be the best people we can be.I need to give women the benefit of the doubt before expecting other women to 'earn my respect'.

Cultural differences

Crouching Ginger was once a supervisor at a job site with a brand new male employee. This employee was an immigrant to the country (he told me himself) & out of respect to the people, I don't want to say where he came from but it is an area that gets a bad reputation for religious intolerance & the treatment of women & girls. 

This person perpetuated that stereotype by talking down to me, commanding me instead of asking me & doubting everything that I said although I was his superior & had done his job for a year (before being promoted). This, Crouching Ginger does not tolerate well.

I always had to immediately bite my tongue when I was being 'commanded' because my immediate knee-jerk reaction is to respond with 'YES BOSS!' Or 'Oh is that so!?!?!" 

But that would have made me look bad. Ultimately, I left the position before I really felt forced to assert myself. But I have to pity the guy. I know the man was not a bad person & ultimately would feel bad for setting him straight because he probably didn't feel the way he spoke to me was wrong. 

I feel bad because although I was always irritated by it, a combination of fear & pity stopped me from letting him have it. In this world there are a lot of people who don't consider the situation or don't control their emotions enough to contain themselves & this poor man is going to get reamed. 
If he ever met my mother he would be lucky to get away from her unscathed.

But what's more concerning to me is people like this in a position of power. The world is unjust & as much as we'd like to, we can't tell people that their culture, religion & the way they were brought up is wrong. Most large work forces have provisions for equal opportunities, thankfully, but things still happen.

In that sense this point is valid for so much more than women, but pretty much any group of people (Africans, young people, seniors, people with disabilities etc, etc).  
Solution? Raise better people with better morals & beliefs!!

Boobs

It seems insensitive to make an argument for boobs & compare it to the rape arguments we are hearing so much of nowadays, but I see too many similarities.

Every workplace I've ever been in has had some sort of a dress code. These dress codes have always involved women not having too much visible cleavage (too much being an arbitrary amount decided by a manager). I've always asked myself why?

Especially since most of the workplaces I've been in are offices with no face-to-face interactions with the 'customers'. It makes me feel as if breasts are 'bad' & should be covered up because they are shameful. 
So I have to wonder what is so bad about boobs? 

I've come to the conclusion that there's nothing wrong with boobs, it's what they signify in today's culture. They're a sex symbol, and employers don't want their employees or their customers to have inappropriate thoughts that they act on. And as such, women should have their boobs covered.

Sound familiar?
If a woman is drunk, it's OK to take advantage of her, she's 'making' herself a target & 'dangling' meat in front of rabid wolves... If she's exposing herself, then clearly she 'wants it'...

We need to end the war on boobs. It is NOT a woman's fault that she has great boobs but people around her are 'offended' or 'less productive' because of them. Why is it so easy to blame a female for having a body part instead of teaching other to have control/not be offended?

Solution: We don't need to teach our daughters how to dress but teach our sons how to behave.