I am in Florida for a few days, I am amazed at how apprehensive I was to travel alone. Also, this is the first time I have left Max since he arrived at our house seven years ago.. Addison has moved into my house to stay with Max, feed him and provide him with all the love and ball throwing he desires. He’s been great to send me updates.
I had a dream last night that took me back to the eighties. I was thirty and though what happened seemed like a major trauma at the time, that trauma went into the black abyss of bad things and never emerged again til last night. One wonders then, why now
I was a “me too” back when I worked at a local college. The dream took me back to the time when I was terrified of losing my job if I didn’t acquiesce to a president who when I rejected his advances told me “it’s important to keep good friends here.” That President is dead now, but he was asked to resign after a group of five women testified before the Board of Regents. I was one of those women.
My dream took me back to those days. I had worked only part time at the Panhandle Press and the Courier when I was hired as the part-time community relations coordinator at the College. At the time, it was my dream job. Writing press releases about college events, planning college events and interacting with the community was just the thing for me.. Plus, my plan had always been to return to College so I began to take classes when I got the job.,
All was well. The kids were in school and my career plan was on target. Until it got derailed.
As the advances got more aggressive, I knew I had only one choice. To find another job and leave this job I lloved. I vey quickly was hired as a promotion coordinator at WTRF-TV. I was out of the college and away from my problems.
Actually, my problems had just began. The kids’ Dad and I both worked in Wheeling which meant that we were both an hour away from the kids. I hated the job and had developed IBS along with an ever deepening depression. It all came to a head when Shannon’s cat had kittens; there was no one there to help; and Doug told her if one the kittens died the mother cat would eat it.
I quit the next day. I began to freelance, doing publications, even coordinating fashion shows for a local mall. My self confidence was shot and I had done something I had never done —I had run from a problem rather than face it head on. I was ashamed of myself. But I knew if a filed a grievance and it became public, I would be the big loser…no one would ever hire me again.
But, as circumstances would have it, I got a second chance at confronting the problem. It seemed there were five women in the same boat. The President of the College’s Board of Directors was a woman and a doctor. When one of the women came to her, she went to the Board of Regents and an investigation was launched.
I received a call from Charleston asking if I would talk to the investigator and have my deposition taken. There was an anger within me that threatened to boil over and this was the chance to make it right. I told my story as did the four others. We were not to know who the others were, but we knew.
About a month later I received a call from the President of the Board of Regents to make me aware that there would be story in the paper the next day that the College President was retiring.
Very few ever knew what had really happened. The College put an ad out for a new president and we were privileged to have Dr. Barbara Guthrie-Morse as the first women president of a college in West Virginia.
Dr. Guthrie-Morse had worked as the Assistant to the President but, she too had quit to take a job at Bethany. When she assumed the Presidency she called me to ask me if I would come back to the College in my old job, only this time full-time. She also asked if I would handle the public relations for her inauguration.
That long ago incident which I thought had ruined my career and my well being, was the trajectory that caused me to grow tremendously in my job at the college, finish my degree and leave the college on my terms to go into the West Virginia Legislature.
I don’t know why those memories came back to me last night. Maybe, it was to remind how much things have changed for the better for women in the workplace. I made a choice not to buck the system because I truly believe I would be the loser. In the end, however, due to some very good people, the system worked in my behalf.
