Amanda Gen

Millennial Women in Workforce

I was inspired to write this piece because of a book I read over the summer. It had me wondering about this double standard young women face at work today (especially because I am about to enter the workforce). I decided to research more on this topic which included interviewing some young millennials (3 females and 1 male). Their responses were interesting compared to what the author of Earn It has to say, and it made me realize that the issue is not so much about gender differences, but about the generational stereotyping that most older adults do not even realize they are engaging in.

I feel that each of you will be able to relate (regardless of gender).

I hope you enjoy!

View at Medium.com

https://medium.com/@amandag_4928/millennial-women-what-is-really-holding-us-back-at-work-3da30a53effa

View at Medium.com

Favorite Quotes

“In empathy, women have taken the lead. But so too have many men, such as the great fictional Huck Finn and the extraordinary, forgiving Eric Lomax. By itself, more empathy will not solve all the world’s problems; but more empathy would make it an entirely different world.”
Arlie Hochschild, “Empathy Maps”

“I definitely believe that Americans tend to lose sight of what this country is – a conglomeration of different races, ethnicities, genders, sexualities, religions, classes, etc etc. We are constantly battling it out on social media and out in the streets fighting between massive groups… even though in the end, don’t we all want the same thing? Unity? Love? Cooperation? Trust? Compassion? Hope? A better future?”
Ashley Steele, “Your Dreams Do Not Have to Come at the Expense of My Dreams

Millennial Women in the Workforce

https://www.cnbc.com/video/2019/05/28/mika-brzezinski-daniela-pierre-bravo-give-career-advice-to-millennials.html

As young adults entering the workforce, we face the challenge of overcoming the stereotype “lazy millennial”. Our generation has grown up in a completely different era than the elder generations, living in a time where technology has always been present. Millennials have come to be perceived as the generation who has had everything handed to them, not knowing what hard work really means. This is particularly problematic in the corporate world, where several generations must work together. How can millennials become successful in their careers if they cannot effectively communicate with elder generations in the workforce? This is a question Mika Brzezinski offers solutions to for young millennial women in her book “Earn It”.

Mika writes this book alongside Daniela Pierre-Bravo, a young millennial woman who was able to push past these stereotypes and effectively make a name for herself in her work. In the CNBC interview linked above, Pierre-Bravo and Brzezinski touch on some of the pieces of advice offered in “Earn It”.

After reading the book, a specific passage resonated with me:

“Young women still face a familiar set of challenges: in addition to gender bias that’s an everyday occurrence in the corporate world, they are often dismissed because of their youth. Millennial women in particular get a bad rap, accused of being part of a generation that is distracted, entitled, and lazy. They’re encouraged to present themselves as self-assured and ambitious, but not overly aggressive, which would make them less likeable. These are contradictory messages for women who are entering the work-place and don’t understand the office environment.”
Brzezinski (xiii)

Millennial women are quickly categorized into one of two stereotypes; therefore, they must communicate and present themselves in a way that older generations can make sense of. “Earn It” is a major resource for my paper, and I will draw connections to other sources that talk about differing communication styles between generations, and I will expand on why this is especially important for women.

The Opinions of Others Control Our Lives

“What Fullness Is” is an extremely powerful piece in which Roxanne Gay vulnerably takes us through her journey of gastric bypass surgery and exposes her inner struggles. Gays effectively connects to her audience, America as a whole, with her use of pathos throughout the entire piece. Everyone can relate to worrying about what the opinions of others, which is a big theme in Gay’s piece.

“And the moment I step outside the safety of my home, I hate how visible I am, how people treat me, how they stare and comment both loudly and under their breath, how rude children remind me I’m fat and their rude parents say nothing, how I have to think and overthink where I go and how I will fit into any given space. I do not know how to carry myself with confidence when I go out into the world. Any sense of self I have is often shattered within minutes, and then I am all insecurities and fears, wishing myself into a more socially acceptable form.”

Here, we can see the extent to which the opinion of others controls Gay’s life. She lives day to day distracted and unable to focus on anything besides her image in the eyes of others. Without the negative cultural attitudes toward fatness, it is safe to say that Gay would be comfortable with her body:

“I am, however, sometimes fine with my body. I am fine with my curves, the solidity of me. I am strong and tall. I enjoy the way I take up space, that I have presence”.

These particular few sentences are so emotionally powerful because this is the one time that we hear Gay accepting herself. It exposes the extent of how powerful the opinions of others are. What is even more eye opening is that Gay is being told by society that she is supposed to be wanting to work on her body. Society tells her that it is a crazy notion that she should ever feel satisfied with her fatness. Gay is pushed to conform after the humiliating incident in the grocery store parking lot. The opinion of others wins in the competition with self-acceptance.

Once she undergoes surgery, Gay’ sense of self is destroyed and the psychological effects are shocking. Gay has always been told that surgery is the solution to all of her problems and that she should be fully happy after it.

“And I had to do so while recognizing that losing weight wasn’t actually going to make me happier — which may have been the bitterest part of all.”

Realizing this is not true is part of the depressing side effects of the surgery, and is something Gay has to cope with forever. After the surgery, Gay says she feels as if nothing has changed. She cannot seem to comprehend the enormous life changing event she has just endured. The mind are body are strongly connected, which is a big reason why she develops body dysmorphia.

Although many people will never know what it is like to have gastric bypass surgery, Gay does a wonderful job in putting the audience in her own shoes. This piece effectively makes the reader uncomfortable in order to imagine how agonizing this journey must have been.

Healing the Wounds

Throughout the past 4 weeks in this course, I have approached each piece we have read looking for an answer or a quick fix to these cultural differences. After listening to Obama’s “A More Perfect Union” speech, I realized that there is not a single solution. As hard as one may try, we cannot completely knock down these walls that separate us. I think that this is a clear point that Obama’s speech highlights and, while obvious, we tend to overlook this.

Obama reminds us that we are not a perfect union, nor will we ever be perfect.However, if we don’t at least try to come together then division will persist. He affirms that our “racial wounds” are not an issue that can be solved “in a single election cycle, or with a single candidacy”. This is something that America, as a whole, must work on together throughout time.

“The fact is that the comments that have been made and the issues that have surfaced over the last few weeks reflect the complexities of race in this country that we’ve never really worked through – a part of our union that we have yet to perfect. And if we walk away now, if we simply retreat into our respective corners, we will never be able to come together and solve challenges like health care, or education, or the need to find good jobs for every American.”

There is benefit in addressing the fact that borders exist. We cannot run from situations that bring up these contact zones in fear of an igniting a controversy. “Retreating to our respective corners” would be doing the country a disservice. While we cannot silence our differences, we also cannot allow controversy to evoke hatred. Obama notes that it was not the Reverend’s remarks that made the campaign take a “divisive turn” but our reaction to the remarks.

“A More Perfect Union” is a call to action for every individual in America. Obama has managed to cross the border lines and connect to every with a unifying mentality. He urges Americans to accept the imperfections of prejudice and find what unifies us: survival, freedom, and hope so that we, as a nation, can prosper. Obama exemplifies this in his dilemma over Reverend Wright’s offensive remarks. Taking the high road, he recognized the part of himself in his Reverend: “As imperfect as he may be, he has been like family to me”. There would be no good to come out of denouncing his reverend. Likewise, if Americans succumb to negativity, then we are essentially continuing the cycle and worsening the racial wounds.

Borders Do Not Define Us.

Gloria Anzaldua’s “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” confronts the restrictive borders of language that she has faced throughout her life. Growing up as a Chicano, Anzaldua found a sense of self within multiple cultures and often spoke a blend of English and Spanish. Chicano Spanish is a blend of languages and it “sprang out of the Chicanos’ need to identify [themselves] as a distinct people”. Obviously, language and identify are interconnected, especially for the Chicano people. Discourse helps the Chicano people feel connected to each other. For Anzaldua, speaking Chicano is her way of distinguishing herself from others and embracing her bilingualism. However, she has struggled with finding a sense of belonging in the Chicano culture because she was constantly reminded that “Chicano” does not fit a national identity.

“Chicana feminists often skirt around each other with suspicion and hesitation. For the longest time, I couldn’t figure it out. Then it dawned on me. To be close to another Chicana is like looking into the mirror. We are afraid of what we’ll see there. Pena. Shame. Low estimation of self”.

Here, Anzaldua is admitting that Chicanos are afraid to see their own reflections in fear of perceiving the illegitimacy of Chicano culture. Their beliefs about language come from others who fit into a specific culture identity. Similarly to Min-Zhan Lu, Anzaldua feels silenced by society. Although Anzaldua feels ashamed in public, she has an intrinsic sense of pride in her “synergy of two cultures” that no one can take away from her. Obviously, Anzaldua cannot disguise her Chicano pride when she describes how the “corridos” songs make her feel:

“Yet I couldn’t stop my feet from thumping to the music, could not stop humming the words, nor hide from myself the exhilaration I felt when I heard it”.

This internal conflict between shame and pride, identity and invalidation, shows the power of language and the control it has over a group of people.

“How to Tame a Wild Tongue” is a symbolic piece illustrating the role language plays in Anzaldua’s identity. She fully embraces her Chicano culture and refutes dominant culture through her usage of “Spanglish” throughout the essay. Anzaldua’s contribution to the discussion about language and identity gives us a new perspective, that advances the conversation in a unique way. Anzaldua feels that as long as she is conforming to dominant culture by suppressing her ability to “switch codes”, she cannot take pride in herself because she believes “I am my language”. Everyone has a right to discourse and a right to their sense of belonging, regardless of these fabricated borders.

Whole

In my closet at home I have my cast from when I broke my elbow as a kid. Looking back at the experience, it was definitely a time of imperfect and asymmetry. For a whole summer, I was asymmetrical; I walked around with one limb wrapped in a bright pink cast. Everywhere I went, I people asked me what happened. In the months in which I was injured I felt truly imperfect; my entire world was destroyed. I couldn’t do the thing that made me happiest: gymnastics. Looking back, I see this experience as one of “wholeness” as Lambeth would say. This experience shaped who I am today. It matured me in so many ways. I was taught patience, and I was introduced to the career path that I am working towards today.