Women's struggles
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Thorsten-Krings — 16 years ago(November 26, 2009 01:16 AM)
I just recently watched this. I'm 41 now so I was around in the early nineties. While I know that things certainly weren't easy for women, I just wonder if it was really as bad as that? Were men at the time really complete dinosaurs? The way they treat her is rude and appalling.
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Thorsten-Krings — 16 years ago(January 03, 2010 11:48 PM)
I am a man and I actually work in human resources. My experience is just that the attitude is there, often hidden behind seemingly rational arguments but that the glass ceiling is imposed in a more subtle way. I was shocked by the extreme rudeness with which Jane was treated.
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loki242 — 16 years ago(March 06, 2010 01:22 PM)
Yeah things are so much better now, the slightest joke warrants a lawsuit, private e-mails are intercepted by a third party that
"takes offense" to words. Give me a break. Men and women are not equal if this is a newsflash you are the problem.
I would like to go back in time and kill the idiot who created the term "reimagining." -
gobears87 — 15 years ago(July 01, 2010 04:45 AM)
I took it that sexism would be particularly bad in a police department. Probably also in any other "macho" occupation such as firefighting, construction, heavy industry, etc.
I started my professional career in the early 90's, and my first three bosses were all women. I thought nothing of it, nor did I detect any obvious or rank sexism at the office.
In the early 2000's, we got a new CEO, who was a nasty male chauvinist. The lack of advancement or hiring of female executives was very obvious, although the work climate for the rank and file was largely unaffected.
I guess my point is that although the treatment of Tennison in PS1 seemed a little extreme, I made allowances given the particular type of workplace. The rest of the production dripped with authenticity, so I'm willing to accept that the sexism was realistic for the time and place. -
grendelkhan — 10 years ago(May 29, 2015 07:47 PM)
I was in the military about the time the first series came out and the environment was very much what you see in the show. I'm a male; but have always respected competent and capable women in similar or superior positions. My mother ran her own agency, at one point and most of my aunts were working women. All that mattered was whether they knew their job or not. Therefore, I respected good female officers and enlisted personnel as much as the male ones. However, I saw that a lot of my peers did not share this attitude. I was a naval officer and it was particularly bad there, especially since women were prohibited from serving onboard most classes of ships (at that time; but it was changing by the time I left). I heard some of the senior officers, who I greatly respected, say some things that really lowered their stature, in my eyes. The Tailhook Scandal, post Gulf War 1, really drove it home, though the Navy didn't seem to learn a lesson.
I read a memoir by an Army officer who was part of the first class of female cadets, at West Point. She related some of the incidents they faced, including profane letters speared to their pillow with a saber. She spoke of patronizing behavior from above, when a representative from a cosmetics company was brought in to speak to the graduating women, because of concerns from political corners about the femininity of the female cadets. To their credit, the women all banded together in protest and the academy admitted their mistake and didn't repeat it.
Fortunately, Ah keep mah feathers numbered for just such an emergency! -
eileen-guthrie555 — 9 years ago(May 09, 2016 05:32 PM)
I'm glad you had strong female role models in your life. My oldest cousin went to West Point and spoke about how the female cadets were treated pretty poorly by the male student, especially the older ones who were getting ready to graduate. They did some pretty disgusting things to the female cadets, really gross stuff (won't say what they did, being it's a macho environment and their testosterone was flowing very high and you can use your imagination).
My mom had trouble in her job, she was responsible for training her bosses (she worked for a publisher of law books) most of the man left because the pay wasn't great, so the male turnover was very high. She put her application to be the assistant editor and was turned down, writing "she wasn't qualified for the job" when she's been for 13 years training her bosses. She filed a lawsuit and won her case. She was given the job and a huge raise and I was very proud of her for sticking up for herself in a macho office atmosphere. She also was allowed to pick and chose those who worked under her and more females were added to the department, when previously, she was the only female in the department and was treated as a secretary and file clerk when she had a master degree in English.
So, when I was watching PS, I was reminded by the crap she had to take in an office atmosphere. Same stupid jokes, the same mocking, she was smart and kept her head high and ignored their ignorance and arrogance.