The story so far: The Old Saleswoman has moved to coal and steel country, Wheeling, West Virginia, and because of pressure applied by the FCC, has been hired as the first female to sell advertising at WWVA-Radio, the"Voice of the Ohio Valley". Her boss, Harry, has introduced her to the rest of the sales force and the reception has been less than welcoming.
Before I started working on my phone pitch I wanted to get a little background on my newly assigned accounts, so every morning for the first couple of weeks, I took the elevator to the third floor where all the advertising copy was stored. The elevator operator was a solid looking man who always dressed in dark brown, so he blended in with the interior of the elevator. For the first day or two, he didn’t speak.
Then he started to mutter and growl at me out of the corner of his mouth whenever I got in the elevator. His first mutter was “bitch” and his comments got more colorful and explicit every day. It got so I was afraid to ride up to the third floor alone. It wasn’t that I thought he would do something to me physically; it was more that his outbursts shook me up and made me think about what I might be doing to provoke them. This was a major distraction from the task at hand, which was survival.
One morning around that same time, I read an update in the Wheeling Intelligencer on the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment, an issue I was somewhat interested in and was following, but only on the down-low. If enough states didn't ratify the amendment by June of that year, it would be a dead issue forever.
I always believed in equal pay for equal work. But I’d focused on the equal work side of the equation. I knew if I wanted to make a decent living I had to get a "man’s" job, because traditional female jobs didn't pay well, and all things being equal, men were paid more for doing the same work. Since I had been in business to business sales since 1976, in what was traditionally a man's job, I didn’t concern myself too much with the passage of this amendment.
I realize now this was a selfish attitude, but I believe a lot of women felt the same way. Most women couldn’t see how the passage of the ERA would affect them personally for one reason or another, so a lot of us really couldn’t get behind it. In addition, to say you were a supporter of the Equal Rights Amendment was the same as saying you were a "feminist", still a very brave stance to take anywhere in the country in 1981, much less in coal country.
There was a related article in the paper that morning about a new sexual harassment law recently put in place. Again, I wasn't too concerned about this, because I didn’t think it really applied to me. I was never one to be chased around a desk. But that morning, something in the article caught my attention. It was the first time I read the words “hostile work environment” as it relates to women. It was as if I was struck in the forehead with a twenty-pound mallet.
I ripped the article out of the paper very carefully, folded it very carefully, and put it in the back of my notebook. I took the article out and read it multiple times all that day. I was afraid the words would disappear if I didn’t keep reading them, and I had to keep those words, and this concept alive.
I had a pretty good idea no one at the radio station knew much about a new sexual harassment law, except maybe one woman. Cathy was the publicity person for the station. She was from a big city, had graduated from a local college, and liked the area, so she stayed on to work for the station.
I waited till after five when I knew Harry and all the sales guys would be long gone, and I planned to catch her in her office. Luckily she was in.
I was very nervous about approaching Cathy because she was older, maybe thirty-five, and had graduated from a Jesuit college in Wheeling. Everyone told me Jesuit colleges were supposed to be real tough. At the time the college was named Wheeling College, now it's known as Wheeling Jesuit University.
Cathy was allowed to sit in on meetings with the male station manager, male sales manager, male program director, and all the male announcers. Impressively, these meetings never seemed to make her anxious. The day we met she wore brown suede boots with fringe that came up to her knees.
I handed her the article I’d ripped out of the newspaper. I pointed out the phrase I’d found so startling, and asked her what she thought it meant. Then I explained my situation with the elevator operator and asked her if she thought this phrase “hostile work environment” applied.
After she read the article she said, “Before we talk about this I have to ask you a question.”
I nodded. "Yes. Of course, sure.” I was very nervous.
“Are you in support of the ERA?”
“ERA? I don’t know about that, but this hostile work thing seems important.”
“Well, what you just told me is part of what this amendment is all about. It’s not just about pay. It’s equal rights and respect under the law.”
“Then I’m for it,” I said.
As an afterthought, I told her about the sales guys who wouldn’t speak to me, and she told me nothing could be done about that. She believed changing that sort of thing would take years and couldn’t be legislated. She was really smart.
I think it was a week later that a meeting was called. All the station employees were asked to meet next door in the Capital Music Hall at noon.
Somewhere, a small voice told me this meeting might have something to do with my conversation with Cathy, but I told that small voice to shut up because I didn’t want to think about the repercussions if that were true. I did listen to that small voice long enough though to know I better get my game face on.
To be Continued in Chapter 3 "Mobile Home Paradise"
