For fear of sounding vulgar, work this summer was a sausage party. Literally.
This summer, I worked as a griller in the meat department of a grocery store. Out of 31 employees, I was one of seven women. Though retail is not thought of as “male-dominated,” the meat department has always been intertwined with masculinity. The blood, knives and large hocks of meat came in stark contrast to the blankies, nursery rhymes and tutus in my previous jobs in childcare, a typically “feminine” career field. The cooking field is also male-dominated, with 77 percent of chefs being male, while women typically occupy the serving roles. Here, all of the grillers were female, while the clerks and butchers were almost exclusively male. While I knew the stakes were lower than other male-dominated fields where women work under glass ceilings on the bad side of a wage gap, I was prepared for the next worst: mansplaining and “get back in the kitchen” jokes.
Unintentionally, one my first day, I succumbed to the overemotional female in the workplace stereotype. Yep, I cried my first day on the job.
My male coworkers asked me if I needed a break, insisted that I did when I protested, took over the grill and acted as if the incident never happened. No whispers. No shaking of heads. No visible judgment whatsoever. In fact, throughout my time at my job, even while I was being trained for a position for which I was woefully under-qualified, I was treated as an equal.
Though my coworkers were indifferent to my sex, customers were a different story. On one occasion, I stepped in to help on the counter. I helped a woman pick out meat for the grill.
“How would you like these burgers cooked, ma’am?”
“Oh, it’s okay. I’ll go down to the griller and tell him how I want it cooked.”
“You can tell me, ma’am. I’m the griller.”
The woman laughed. “You?”
On another occasion, a man said as I was turned around packaging his purchase, “She makes me want to be a butcher again. If they had girls in the meat department in my day…”
Even when customers did talk down to me, my coworkers were always there to praise my new skills or treat me like a human (a rarity in retail). I do not think this equal treatment is a radical jump in feminism. I was pleasantly surprised by my male coworkers’ treatment of me, but that surprise makes me sad for the state of equality in the workplace. I should expect equal treatment, not treat it as a gift.