#MeToo In A Culture Of Good Old Boys, (In the Forest Service)
(This is from March 2018, but I think it is interesting to read about the good ole boy mentality operating in the forest service).
by Susan Marsh
https://mountainjournal.org/metoo-is-rising-in-federal-agencies
(Excerpts)
I began my Forest Service career in 1980. It was only a few years after a lawsuit settlement required more women to be hired in the name of fairness and diversity. The Forest Service resented the judge’s decree and the new employees who arrived because of it. Any woman appointed to a professional or managerial position was assumed to have gotten there simply because of her gender, regardless of whether she was more qualified than her male competitors.
In the year of my arrival with the agency, much of the Forest Service had moved from field stations to offices. The family turned into a club, and in the places where I worked, women were not invited.
My first reaction to on-the-job discrimination was to try to talk myself out of it. I was being too sensitive, imagining slights that had not actually occurred. But I noticed the veil slide over some eyes when I spoke up at a meeting.
About half the men at the table would stare at their hands or play with their pencils, impatiently enduring my voice. At lunch breaks, male colleagues would circle tightly to plan their escape to the local sandwich shop while I was left to stand aside. Women co-workers verified I was not imagining things, and I proved it to myself at a brainstorming session.
Nothing I said was put up on the flip chart. One of the rangers raised an eyebrow in agreement to something I brought up, so I suggested he repeat it. It worked. I learned to pass notes to the men at the table if I thought I had an idea worth considering.
When the leadership team took a week-long trip to Denver, I walked around town during lunch with a couple of the men who I considered friends. While I was staring at a gorgeous quilt hanging in the downtown public library, they ditched me. Stranded among tall glass buildings, I wasn’t sure I’d ever find my way back to the office where we were supposed to meet. I managed it, arriving late and chagrined.
One evening the men decided to gather at a topless bar. The forest supervisor, one district ranger, and myself, the only female team members, retired to our hotel rooms. So much for team-building; the message was clear.
= new reply since forum marked as read
Committee members puffed up their ruffled feathers to express outrage by the testimony given by victims of sexual assault and the Forest Service’s official response. One of them said, “I just heard the most glowing account of all of the improvements that have been made over the past eight years, and you mean to tell me that someone can engage in the conduct that [the victim] just described and avoid all consequence whatsoever?”
Part of the conduct referred to included grabbing and poking the victim’s breast. I can think of other high officials in our government who have done the same or worse, with similar non-consequences. The entire hearing struck me as ironic, given all that’s been happening on the sexual harassment front lately, especially involving elected officials. While the congressmen were eager to jump all over the Forest Service during the last administration, they seem to have quieted down considerably since.
While the congressmen were eager to jump all over the Forest Service during the last administration, they seem to have quieted down considerably since.
What a surprise. NOT.
