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Because She’s a Woman: Glass Ceilings, Female Politicians, and Hate Speech
Submitted by Broadsword on Wed, 2008-10-22 15:54
Blog post here. Excerpt:
"Thus, one clear meaning of the glass ceiling is that men are conspiring together against women. This has been one of the themes of feminist rhetoric: Evil men oppress women. In order for women to rise to the top, they not only need to achieve like men do, but they also need to overcome the unfair efforts by men to hold them back.
In that interpretation, to say there is a glass ceiling is to accuse men of doing wicked things: of conspiring against women to keep them down. If men are actually engaged in such a conspiracy, then talking about it is a valid way of protesting injustice and promoting liberty. But if men are not conspiring and oppressing, then talk of glass ceilings is irresponsible accusation. It can even be regarded hate-mongering, in that it inspires negative feelings toward men, and unfairly so. At least, such speech is an attack on men, unless one has clear proof. Candidates (and others) who use the term "glass ceiling" should be required to furnish persuasive proof that men are indeed engaged in such a conspiracy."
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Palin's glass ceiling
Being that the feminists hate Palin, they are the ones conspiring against her and may ultimately be the reason she can't reach the position of VP. You go, girls!
The "Glass Ceiling" where I used to work
Several years ago I hired a woman into my department at a large multi-national technology company. She came to us from another employer, and while she hadn't done the exact work we were hiring for I felt that her past experience, skill set, and desire to excel at the work made her a good choice. Also, my field is quite technical and there are very few women in it. Our shop was at the time, for lack of a better term, kind of a sausage fest. She was not an especially attractive woman and she was married, so hitting on her wasn't my motivation in wanting to hire her or anything, I just wanted to change up the dynamic of our group a bit. Also I felt like I had been given a chance when I was new, a lot of knowledge in my field is passed down by a kind of apprenticeship and I saw a lot of the same sort of drive and willingness to learn in her.
During the offer process she and I had a few preliminary conversations about compensation. The amount of money she was asking for was far too low for the level of job she would be doing. I talked that over with a co-worker and this made us both nervous for a few reasons. First, we felt we might have some legal exposure if we gave her what she was asking and it later came out that she was making two-thirds what men in our group were making. Secondly, we wanted to make sure she didn't under cut us. We did not want our home office in St Louis to suddenly decided they could find competent people in our area for 1/3 less than they were paying us. Finally of course, we just wanted to be fair.
After talking it over, I made the decision to call her at home that night to tell her, off the record, that we wanted to hire her but that she needed to ask for more money when negotiating with the director of our shop, who would be making the actual offer. I didn't come straight out and tell her how much she should be asking for, but I didn't point her to a couple of websites that would offer some guidelines.
We ended up hiring her on but the experience was decidedly mixed.
We were brainstorming one day on how to solve a problem, she threw out an idea to which I said, in an offhand and not particularly unfriendly way, "Oh that's never going to effing work." And then I explained why I thought it wouldn't.
The mood got tense, though I had not meant it as a personal affront. I was just shooting down a bad idea, I felt she should have just shrugged it off. She, on the other hand, held a grudge over that for the next 3 years From that moment on I felt she was working against me.
Anyway, a bunch of things happened over the next few months and we both kind of agreed that she should move into another department.
About a year after that the company had grown quite a bit. There were several more women, but they were mostly Ukranians, Iranians, Israelis... There was only 1 other American woman in the office. American women, in my experience, don't go into technical careers, and when they do they quit. The foreign women were great. They'd stand outside looking dour and smoking. They understood what we guys understood, a job is just a job.
Anyway, I was walking through the kitchen around that time and overheard the two American women talking in hushed tones.
"You have to be 10 times better than any man!" My former protege whispered, while the other nodded in sage agreement.
10 times better?
10 times? The old standby, "twice as good as any man!" Doesn't quite capture enough fury, arrogance, and entitled outrage anymore?
Most people are, by definition, mediocre. When it comes to my work I'm comfortably in that middle range myself anymore, though I do like to think I can sill whip out the occasional flash of brilliance.
It's just a job, your working for a huge company, they're paying you to get the bills printed on time or some such shit, not to be "brilliant".
She was competent. She brought a unique perspective, but so did the 4 men on our team. She was competent and mediocre just like us.
I still can not quite fathom the arrogance that would allow her to believe, or at least to believe that she was entitled to believe, that she was "10 times better" than the rest of us. I'm not sure I'd ever hire another woman. At least not an American one.
The Glass Divider
There is no glass ceiling but I use a glass divider to keep myself separate from these hordes of entitled skanks, fake MRAs and manginas.
Context
"You have to be 10 times better than any man!" My former protege whispered, while the other nodded in sage agreement.
Now did she mean it in the sense that a woman has to be 10 times better than a man to get promoted or that she actually was 10 times better than any man? Both cases are bullshit, but I'm just curious.