Sexism in the Workplace

To Frances K. Conley, the neurosurgery professor who resigned from her tenured post at Stanford:

I too am a professional woman (an attorney). I am short, blonde, buxom, and, I’m told, attractive. One day, I encountered a business colleague who made filthy sexual overtures. However, the rest of my career and career preparation has been harassment-free.

Why? I have turned a blind eye to it. I do not begin my day with an assumption that the male of the species is superior.

Too many “feminists” spend too much time bitching about how they are treated by men, losing time bettering themselves and the world around them. Conley has done a disservice to women everywhere by bowing to pressure from those inferior cavemen in the “old-boy network” who wanted nothing less than her resignation as a further indicator that women can’t take the heat in a “man’s world.”

Maybe I’m Pollyanna, and maybe Conley’s encounters were truly unbearable, but I doubt it. Women can make it as well as any man, even if they are different and have to get where they want to go by different names. The solution is not to dwell on it.

Incidentally, also in Opinion was an interview with Jordan’s Queen Noor. Now there’s a lady making her mark as a Muslim woman with a strong command of issues pertinent to her career and without any indication of weakness in the face of the cultural obstacles she faces. Ms. Conley, take note.

LISA F. BUTLER, San Diego