Responding to Blog Post

Respond to the following Blog Post below… Direction on how to respond at the end of this Blog

Blog 1: B

In my first blog post I will be discussing a time in which I saw real world social inequality. The book defines it and gives examples “wealth, income, education, and jobs”. While gender inequality was not discussed in this original definition, I do believe there is an inequality in the sexes. As a woman I could sit here and talk about my perceived inequalities however I have taken this as an opportunity to talk about inequality I’ve witnessed of the males in my workplace.

I am a specialist in the US Army. My job is 37F, and for those unfamiliar it is Psychological Operations. I create cultural analysis of groups and create propaganda for the US Military (essentially). As a woman in a primarily male dominated workplace, I have had my struggles. Whether it is proving myself physically or mentally. I have had to compete and excel in physical fitness tests and show to my male peers that I am more than capable of being in a combat situation where they can trust me. I believe this is all due to social stratification. According to the book this is a deeply embedded hierarchy providing different groups rewards, resources, and privileges. I think a lot of my male counterparts have an ideology that because I am a female, I am not capable of providing the same level of security in my job that they may be able to. Due to all this my career in the military has been proving myself to my coworkers. All this aside I really enjoy my work and love my coworkers like family.

Since the #MeToo movement there has been a lot of sensitivity to females in our workplace and how they are treated. While I do appreciate this, and it has been helpful in creating awareness for these issues I have seen females watched out for and males ignored. An example of this is my team got a new boss (an NCOIC) who made a lot of very sexual comments that were not appropriate in any workplace. While he harassed me and a few other females he also harassed a certain male. When it came to reporting it wasn’t until this male boss was harassing females that it became an issue (when he had already been harassing this male soldier for some time before). I think to a certain extent everyone was “glossing” over the harassment because they might have perceived it as a joke, or because of a certain ideology that because he was a male that he could “take care of himself, etc”. We did end up reporting the male boss who was harassing his soldiers, but it wasn’t until he started blatantly harassing females that other individuals took too much notice.

I know this does not speak for all service members in the military, but this was an experience that I witnessed firsthand as social inequality. While it may not seem like a big deal to some it is just the tip of the iceberg of issues that come with working in an environment where there are a lot of stigmas. I love my job and would love to continue serving but I just had to take this opportunity to bring to light how I have seen social inequality go “both ways”.

Direction on how to repsond
Blog assignment grades will depend on:
• The degree to which your entries address the ideas presented in the prompts
• The degree to which you pull in ideas from the readings (and other sources, as appropriate) **This applies to follow-up comments, too!**
• The degree to which you respond to other students and actively participate in the blog discussions
• The insightfulness/quality/substance of your initial posts and follow-up comments
• The timeliness of your posts (entries and comments)
• Originality—entries and comments that simply restate the ideas of others will receive a 0.

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