Feminists

Here's a true story. I was divorced and had a 3 year old when I was hired. I was the only female among 115 men with the same or similar jobs. We were on call to our customers 24/7. My customer happened to be the state government. Several times I received a callout in the middle of the night. No babysitters available at that hour, so I would take my sleeping son with me. I would find a quiet corner and build a nest with coats and put him down while I worked. I felt tremendous pressure to take every call I got so the guys couldn't point to me not keeping up with them. Anyways, one night I had my son sleeping in a corner, and one of the state's top guys came in and saw me and the kid. We talked about the problem I was there to solve and he left. The next day, my manager advised me that he had gotten a call from the state guy about me having to bring my son with me. I truly thought I would be fired, but he said he and the management team (all males) had never thought about the issue. They told me it was okay to decline a callout when I had no one to watch my child. I managed to stay with them until retirement, having 'fun' encountering several more issues as they introduced women into their workforce.