valentine's conversations
one was positive, the other experience was very negative--I could add it to my "harassment journal"1) was talking to a security guard after transporting a patient from the ER to the psych floor. This was the first time I had walked past the entryway in the psychiatric unit at the hospital, since this female patient was so hyped up that she was in restraints. anyway, he asked me many questions.
guard: "How long have you worked here?"
me: "since April"
guard" I haven't seen you here much."
me: "I only work 20 or 30 hours a week. I have another job."
(more questions. I will omit these. They are not that important.)
"Why do you work two jobs? Don't you have a husband?"
"No"
guard: "Don't you have kids?"
"No"
Then I asked him if he had any kids for which he explained that he had two kids, but they were grown--ages 18 and 25. he 'started young" because he is age 39 (or so he told me). I kidded with him--he shouldn't say that he has a 25-year-old, because then he can't say that he is twenty-five!
It was a pretty interesting conversation which got me thinking, esp the line, "Why do you work two jobs. Don't you have a husband?"
my thoughts: gosh, having a husband would be like getting a raise, considering that women earn 70 cents to $1 than men earn, an American statistic, for the same job. I'm sure that this is especially true in the ER as a technician, the men are paid more since they are men, as supposed to be the "breadwinners." The funny thing is, I think there are men that I work much harder than doing my same job, and they are getting paid more for it.
2) my gosh, I felt so harassed when I went to take a 25-year-old male's (psych patient) pressure. I went to put the pressure cuff on his arm, which had all of this tattoos all over his body, and he caressed the upper part of my arm. All I said was "That's unnecessary," and put his arm down; it caught me off guard. I was not expecting this.
To make this situation even stranger, his mother was in the room, looking directly at me, and she did not even say anything to her son, such as, "Don't trouble that nurse." (well, I'm actually not a nurse, I'm a technician, but the patients usually don't decipher between us). It's like she didn't take any responsibility for her son's behavior.
I should have made a bigger deal out of this, like yelled (or slapped him!) so he would have learned what is appropriate behavior towards women. It makes me feel like female medical professionals are just being used, what an insult. Plus, it doesn't matter if he is in need of psychiatric help or not, it's no excuse to be a sinner.
posted by the princess @ 2/15/2005 07:00:00 AM
2 Comments:
yea , it's not cool that women are paid less than men for the same job ...
sorry that that guy violated you . i was in gym at middle school once and this mentally handicapped child touched me on my groin one day and it made me really mad because i couldn't do anything to get back at him . since everyone would just say he was innocent because he didn't understand what he was doing .
it's not all that great to be a guy . you're constantly being tempted by girls , even when they don't do anything to incite you , and it gets tiring after a while . it's not like you're asking to be attracted to them but it happens anyway .
i'm really sorry that this guy touched you without your permission .
It's been worse. One summer in college, my boss kept touching my body, and I worked for a Christian organization, too. It started with just touching my shoulder or back, but then he touched my butt on two or three seperate occasions!The problem was that we all worked in very close quarters, but still, none of the other employees were touching my body, and I worked with them more.
The way that this was delt with was just awesome though, and I have the utmost respect for this oranization (Wheaton College), because the first time it happened, I went right to this person (my boss) and told him that it bothered me. He stopped for a while, but then it started happening again, (maybe it was just the way he treated all young women), so then I went to HIS boss.
Again, the way that these men delt with it was just so awesome and I have the utmost respect for these Godly men, because a) they didn't think I was lying, as I think often happens with women in the workplace and b) I didn't have to lose my job because they just transfered me to another department. AND they talked to this person, which it what I wanted them to do. Hopefully, it would not happen again to someone else, repentence.
Praise God for Godly men, who hold others accountable!
On another occasion, at my previous church, something happened, and no one held this person accountable. I felt that it was because I was (I AM) a woman. I think these people thought I was lying!!! When the so-called leaders didn't do anything about it, I should have walked right out the front doors of this organization, but foolishly I kept attending this church. Now I realize what a stupid error that was.
I'm sure that Christian women have tons more stories than this, about being harrassed at work. enough of my sob stories though, I have to go to the dentist.
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