My expectations of the organization 9 TO 5 were two fold: one involved the atmosphere of this grass roots movement at the Colorado headquarters and the second expectation involved my idealistic view of the world; seeing people more cooperative and compassionate of the needs of working women.
The image of walking into the downtown office at 9 TO 5 was a room that was as big as a Kmart store, full of cubicles where men and women are answering ringing phones. The energy was high and ongoing; the large white painted walls had bulletin boards scattered through out the room with brightly colored posters tacked to the cork boards shouting women's rights causes. I think my scenario's expectations came from the movie 9 TO 5, a comedy created in 1980 about 4 women who work for a large corporation and who seek revenge on their sexist, bigoted, condescending boss. A catalyst movie about sexual discrimination in the work place.
The second expectation I had before I walked into the first day of my Gender and Communication class room was organizations like 9 TO 5 having an on-going "civil war' between the government and ordinary people; or women vs. power hungry men. I thought that once society was aware of the inqualities still present in every day work life, problems like a lack of paid sick days- and a banner made for society to see this and shout at for changes- would implement change.
But it is not that simple and takes more than a banner or a day. It takes numbers- numbers of people to over ride the narrow minded views of people who hold positions in office. Those in office who dispute the less dominant classes of people.
And those people who are different in the work place and who ask for the focus to be on their families at critical times; and who ask for basic human rights to be reinforced such as respecting one another in the work place- they need to be persistent in seeking changes and it cannot be just the organization itself to make these changes. My expectations of the a grass roots organization making obviously important changes for citizens with little effort probably came from the media in books, movies and music. Stating that change is necessary, a no brainer, so nothing should hold up the issue because people are homogenous in their thoughts for a better world. But not everyone operates in the same way and has the same attitude. In my opinion there are a lot of black and white views out there wearing color.
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