She began teaching at Northview High School in 1986. Despite her eagerness to shape the lives of her students, the young teacher was not viewed as an influential educator. Her male colleagues treated her as their secretary, rudely shoving their own work onto her desk.
But Challice Dixon refused to give in to their disrespectful demands.
“I couldn’t compromise my true self,” Dixon said. “Nor would I want myself, any other woman, someday my own children or the young ladies in my classroom to feel like second class citizens. Because we certainly are not.”
Dixon faced backlash for standing up for what she believed. Female colleagues told Dixon not to “rock the boat.” She felt unliked. However, her own confidence as well as support from the principal led Dixon to persevere.
“I said, ‘I will not be treated like that,’” Dixon said. “It took a couple years [at Northview High School] for people to finally realize that I’m an equal to everybody else. It doesn’t matter that I’m a woman.”
Although Dixon’s experiences took place 34 years ago, women face similar discrimination in the workplace today.
Senior Elizabeth Nichols, a waitress at a local restaurant, worked a busy evening shift. Amidst the frenzy of serving her tables, an older man grabbed Nichols inappropriately. Distracted by her work, she did not fully process what happened, but knew that she had to remove herself from the situation.
“[Managers] never tell you how to deal with it. I just didn’t know what to do,” Nichols said. “You have to find the line between being professional and protecting yourself. I was never taught how to handle it.”
After finally slipping away to the kitchen, Nichols told other staff members what happened and received apologies, but nothing more. She hoped for support from management, but one manager made it clear the issue would not be addressed. Even Nichols’ coworkers were complacent, sharing their own stories of sexual harassment that they saw as just a part of the job.
“You’d think work would be a good place where you would feel safe because you have these people supposedly protecting you, but then to find out you don’t. You just have to constantly be vigilant,” Nichols said.
Shaken from the experience, and upset by conversations with another manager who revealed why the restaurant hired mostly female servers, Nichols chose to put her two-week notice in.
“It kind of makes you feel objectified,” Nichols said. “Like I’m getting hired because they know our clientele-it’s usually older men.”
Gender discrimination occurs in other situations as well, which sophomore Amara Grajewski is well aware of.
Through volunteering at the library and summers spent working on a snow cone truck, Grajewski interacts with a variety of different people. However, Grajewski notices that guests are quicker to approach a male coworker for help than herself, believing that she is not qualified to answer their questions.
“People see me and if I hesitate to even answer a question, they’ll be like ‘Oh, just get him, he’ll take care of it,’” Grajewski said.
Like Dixon, Nichols and Grajewski, countless other women experience discrimination in their workplace. Although they faced very different situations, all three women agree that something needs to change.
“[Keep] the conversation going,” Grajewski said. “Because if no one’s talking about [gender discrimination], then nothing’s getting done.”
