Updated First Draft-Peer Review This

            There is a difference between learning about the ignorance and inequality between the genders in our society and then there is actually experiencing it. When I came to Ohio University, I was a budding feminist and almost completely unaware of the inequalities that I experience everyday as a woman. Since freshman year, I have been taking Women and Gender Studies classes and this year I have declared a certificate from the WGSS program. Throughout these classes, I learned just how inequalities can be presented but never shook me to the core in my atmosphere here at OU because I thought my college was modern and liberal to be above that bias. Those were my thoughts until my junior year of school and after becoming a supervisor at my place of work. As a woman taking a superior work position over men that are my age, and some even older, I become accustomed to being called hysterical, a hard ass, annoying, needy, and words to the same liking while my male counterparts have not been called any of those names when we do the exact same work. I worked hard to achieve this position of employment and its very disheartening that my efforts go unrecognized because I am a woman in a superior position.

Until I came to college, I was a very meek person. I think I was meek because I never found anything yet to be passionate about; there was nothing that really got me excited to do something. I babysat for money, got decent grades, and lived a pretty average life. When I came to school, I branched out: went to parties, got close to my three roommates, rushed a sorority, and broke out of my shell. Living this new, social lifestyle meant paying for it. My parents provided a small allowance for me at the beginning of every month but I realized that I want a little more and more each month that went by. When I came back for my second semester, I began to start the job search for funding my midnight food runs and other entertainment expenses. I tried avoiding dining hall positions as much as I could and I wasn’t eligible for the Ohio University PACE program; I started to run out of options. I started to reach out to some of my sorority sisters and ask about their employment situations and where they were looking for jobs. After starting to get discouraged, my friend, Laura, said that she just got a job at the “call center.” She gave me the application website and said she’d talk to her boss for me.

            About a week later, I received a phone call from the manager of the call center, Carlyn Runnells. She said that she had reviewed my application and that I was welcome to come in for a group interview. After I got off the phone, I went up and down the emotion scale from excited to nervous, to happy, to full out terrified. I started asking myself the typical interview-prep questions: what am I going to wear, what is she going to ask me, who else is going to be there, what if I don’t get to talk? Finally the day came, I walked myself all the way day down Union Street, and entered with head held high and confident. The group interview wasn’t as bad as I expected it to be; everyone got a fair chance to speak, Carlyn listened to all of us fairly, and after the interview was over, she stood up and said we’d be hearing from her soon. As I walked home, I analyzed everything I had said, did, what others said and thought I did my best and only the best could happen. Two days later, I received a call from Carlyn saying that she thought I would be a good addition to the calling team and she would like to offer me a position. I accepted and decided on my first day of training with her.

            Training was over the course of a couple hours in one day and it was a whole lot of information coming at me in a small amount of time. My training class and I were taught how to properly use the phonathon software, how to properly go through a call and properly ask for monetary donations, and how to deal with the rejection that a caller typically gets on the phone. I was excited to start and actually get on the phone and actually start talking to alumni and asking about their experiences and getting them to give. On my first day, I positioned myself right by the supervisor and a couple of the older callers so that I could listen in and learn faster how to be the best that I could. At first, it was difficult, as any task involving asking strangers for money is, but thanks to my newfound social skills I discovered in college, talking on the phone started to get easier and easier. After the first month on getting started, I became getting pledges consistently; every shift I worked, I usually got around three pledges. I started getting noticed by my superiors as a strong caller. I started getting incentives like gift cards and prizes based on my work performances and was personally having my boss come up to me after shifts and tell me how great of a job I was doing. I had never had a position in my life that people other than my parents were giving me so much praise and it felt empowering. I also started to not just like my job because of the money, but because of the actual task at hand. The money I was raising was going to support students like myself with scholarships, building updates, and making an active part to betting the university. I felt as though I was doing so much more than just calling people. I called from my freshman year into my sophomore year, maintaining my rank as on e of the top callers in the center through the year. Towards the end of my sophomore year, two positions as supervisors opened due to two seniors graduating. I was one of five that applied for the two positions, the youngest and only woman applicant. When I went in for my interview, my manager asked me why I thought I would be a good supervisor. I distinctly remember thinking about my response first and then saying, “because I care about the money we raise. It isn’t just a temp job we’re doing here; we’re affecting a community.” I think that is why I got the job.

            I stayed the summer in between sophomore and junior year to train as a supervisor alongside my boss. Over the summer, she and I had gotten closer on a professional and personal level. I learned more about how the company I worked for worked alongside of OU, how our goal efforts were analyzed, and how to hire and train new callers. All that experience made me a more effective superior to callers then and now. During the summer, it was small shifts, lots of my friends, and I was the only supervisor. When the school year started, I thought that it was going to be the same as the summer, fun, easy, no stress while I was in the call center. Once the old veteran callers came back to the center (mostly all senior men) and my other supervisors (three other men) I learned that my ideal school year at work was not to be. At first, older callers were nice and respectful to me as a boss: they listened when I told them their goals, when I critiqued their calls, and laid down discipline when I needed too. As the school year entered into its second month, everyone got more comfortable at work. When I would critique calls, callers would brush off what I’d say, when I tried to list off announcements, not one would listen, and when I tried to motivate I would be laughed at. My boss would sit back in her office with the door closed so she didn’t experience any of this and I was too nervous to bring it up. As the year went on, not only the callers were having bad behavior, my three other supervisor counterparts. When we would have supervisor meetings, I would be told that I care too much, I get upset by the callers too easily, and so on. I tried to explain myself but they wouldn’t (still don’t) hear it. Throughout the year, I started to become a game on how to get me riled up during shift and once I hit my boiling point, it was apparently laughable. I would be called a “mini-boss” and get harped on how much I cared. That was what made me the most upset, when I was questioned why I cared so much about my job. I would go home from shifts and be visibly upset and it would ruin the rest of my night, much to my friends’ and boyfriend’s dismay. A couple of these instances, my boss did see it and would reprimand them, but once she went back into her office, the games would start again.

            I know that this is a college job, a temp job, a part time, barely more than minimum wage job. To me, this a role that I might want to pursue after graduation, but the way that I have been treated by these men in my workplace are slowly convincing me otherwise. This past year makes me question every man I work with in other jobs and school in wondering if they’re making fun of me behind my back and doubting me. I know that there are many women around the world that can identify with me in how they feel in their workplace. I would like to study why men tend to ask this way with women in power and why they feel compelled to act out. What is further is that I don’t fight their words and their teasing any more because I don’t want to match their accusations and stereotypes of hysteria and whining. I would like to compare the experience of my male supervisor counterparts.....