Women's Issue

I thought I might enter a contest wherein I write an essay about a “women’s issue”. Being a woman myself, I thought this might be a fairly easy essay to write… until I really thought about it. Frankly, I couldn’t think of a single “issue” I have that most men I know don’t have also.

Well, there used to be issues I guess. Men don’t have to deal with the inconvenience of monthly-well-you-know. But I’m way past menopausal, so that “issue” doesn’t exist for me anymore. Of course, men don’t have to deal with pregnancy and childbirth either, although nowadays many of them think they do, because they go to prenatal classes and learn to put a diaper on a baby, and learn to “coach” the mother through childbirth. I won’t EVEN go there…

Many companies give new fathers Family Medical Leave so they can spend quality time with their newborn and bond with him, so even THAT isn’t a women’s issue. By the way, nobody gets Family Medical Leave when the kid is 3 or 4 or 5 years old and needs someone to read to him, teach her the alphabet, colors and numbers. That is generally left to Day Care Workers (predominantly female). The mother MIGHT be able to take a sick day if her child is sick, but the daddy usually doesn’t have that same option. Oops. Maybe I should write about men’s issues. Is there a contest for that?

So aside from obvious physical differences and the “issues” they spawn, what are the other issues that are particular to WOMEN? I admit I couldn’t think of any, so I asked a friend, who happens to be an almost militant supporter of women’s rights, and who has actually marched for women’s rights, “What were the rights you were marching for?”

“You know. WOMEN’S rights.”

Oh. “Can you give me an example?”

Looking at me like I was a dimwit, she said, “You know. Like equal PAY.”

Oh. “OK. You’re a nurse. I’m a nurse. I don’t know when any male nurse was paid more than I was for the same job, and for the same time in the job. Do you?”

She didn’t believe that. “Male nurses are ALWAYS paid more.”

That ended that conversation, because pretty much universally in the USA, male nurses are paid on the same pay scale as female nurses in whatever hospital or clinic they work. There is not a separate male and female nurse pay scale. I’m guessing the same goes for teachers, data entry and IT personnel, police officers, food service workers (wait staff), pizza delivery workers, bartenders, cashiers, and just about every other job I can think of.

I know there was a time when some jobs paid men more than women. When I worked for the telephone company as an operator (always females back then), we were paid less than the men who went out and climbed the poles, and back then, women didn’t work the pole-climbing jobs. But that was 1965. Times have changed.

So anyway, I looked it up. I need a CURRENT issue.

According to the Huffington Post, “Men dominate many of the most esteemed professional fields – and get paid more for their work.” So I stand corrected, I guess. I was thinking of women in general, not the small percentage of women who could afford medical school or law school. But the Huffington Post goes on to say, “ It is a fact that women … (doctors, lawyers, architects, etc.) are neither met with the same confidence as their male colleagues, nor receive equal remuneration.” Well THAT’S an issue I guess. For the upper 2 percent of the economic strata. “In 2004, only 16.8 percent of large law-firm partners were women.” Considering that by 2004, almost half of law students were female, that’s an issue I can write about!

Or thought I could, until I read the second Huffington fact: “Work stress disproportionately impacts women. … to succeed in the workplace, women generally do so at the expense of their physical and psychical well-being…”

So in essence, women are smart enough to graduate from law school, but are not always physically or psychologically equipped to handle the stress of being a large firm partner? Could THAT be the reason more of them aren’t large firm partners, rather than the fact that they have ovaries instead of testicles? Oh… I sure can’t write about that. I would be LYNCHED by the NOW, even though I used to personally have two ovaries of my own.

Even in the still male-dominated military, pay is based on rank and time in grade. A female Staff Sergeant with 12 years service and 2 years of it as a Staff Sergeant is paid the same as a male with the same years. Ditto for officers. And this is regardless of branch of service, or incidentally, their ability or inability to handle the stress of the job.

Just so you know, the other 2 women’s issues the Huffington Post claim haven’t changed “since 1911” are:  “The ‘freedom’ the workplace supposedly offers women sometimes doesn’t feel so free at all” whatever that means, and “Women are doubling up on work at home and outside the home”. That means they work a job, and then have housework when they get home. 

Well… uhm… what can I say? There are approximately 13.7 million single parents in the US, and 82% of them are female. I’m guessing the 18% that are male have the same housework to do when they get home from work too, so even THAT isn’t a women’s issue as much as It’s a single parent issue.

So I’m trying very hard to come up with a REAL women’s issue, not just a parroting of some slogan or poster.  Can anyone help me? Can anyone tell me a real, legitimate CURRENT woman’s “issue”?

Home for the Holidays

The Christmas shopping season is over, and I’ve had time to think about this. Well, I think about it every year, because it happens EVERY year. That is the controversy over whether stores should be open on Thanksgiving Day. You’ve probably voiced some opinion of your own. Usually the discussion starts with something like, “The sales clerks should be able to enjoy Thanksgiving with their families.”  Fair enough. And often I hear, “I’m not going shopping after lunch on Thanksgiving because I’m protesting the sales clerks working on Thanksgiving.”

Just to give you perspective, let me assure you that most of those sales clerks were home with their families  part of Thanksgiving – either before or after their shift at the store, and incidentally, they DID make some Christmas money. But virtually ALL of them were home on Christmas Day. What they weren’t able to do was travel to other cities to be with distant family on Thanksgiving. 

For those who did NOT work on a holiday, and who DID visit distant family, the gas station clerks were at work day and night, so people could travel – buy fuel for the car, and fuel or coffee for the body. So far I haven’t heard anyone who said they weren’t traveling on Thanksgiving because they were protesting  the convenience store clerks working on Thanksgiving.

Or Christmas. Did you hear anyone say, “I’m going to wait until December 26 to buy batteries for that toy because I think the 7-11 clerks should be home with their families on Christmas.”?

Sometimes we get bogged down with little protests (and I know this is probably not politically correct), but  please think about all the people who are REQUIRED to work on holidays … and weekends … and all night.  

At my church (Avondale UMC) we DO think about these people, because at the Christmas Eve service, we are asked to take a “Cup of Cheer”, provided by the church, to someone who has to work that night. Some of us take our cup to the hospital and give it to a nurse in the Emergency Room, to thank her for being there, providing care for people who have a medical emergency. Nobody said that hospitals should close on Christmas because the nurses should be home with their kids on Christmas Eve.  But there were hundreds of staff in that hospital working Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, while their children and families were home singing Christmas songs, opening gifts, and eating turkey dinner.

Some of us took our Cup to the Police Department, to thank the guys in blue for working all night, keeping our streets and neighborhoods safe.  Again, nobody said, “The Police Department should be closed on Christmas, so those guys can be home with their families.”

The first year we did the “Cup of Cheer”, I took my cup to the Fire Department. (Ditto the “home on Thanksgiving/Christmas” statement.) I had only one cup, and there were 6 firemen on duty. I felt so bad, that the next year and the year after that, my family and I prepared 12 Cups of Cheer, and took them to both the Fire Department and the Police Department, co-located in Cahaba Heights, so all of them had a cup. We thanked them all for working for us, so we could spend Christmas with our family. (“Thank you for your SERVICE!”)

This year, though, I had a new thought. All those people working a shift went home at the end of their shifts. Most of them didn’t give work another thought until time to go to work for another shift.

But who works all week, and then is  “on call” 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, (that means holidays, weekends, day, night), and is ready to leave their family at a moment’s notice, if needed? Who do we KNOW will always be there for us, regardless of the time or day? Your PASTOR.  Her “shift” never ends. He NEVER doesn’t think about his work, and all the people who depend on him, day, night, holidays. She is always on call. (Gender neutral. I don’t know how to do that in words).

To my pastor and all the pastors out there who begin 2019 exhausted, but still on duty:

THANK YOU FOR YOUR LOVE FOR US AND YOUR SERVICE TO US!

And all God’s children said … “AMEN!”