Women Trying to Make a Career in a Man’s World: Faced with Adversities by Grace
Grace Smith
ENG255F
Romantic Comedies
21 April 2020
Women Trying to Make a Career in a Man’s World: Faced with Adversities
I was eighteen when I realized I was serious about going into the
medical field. I got an internship alongside an anesthesiologist where I was
able to learn from surgical doctors, nurses, and physician assistants.
Regardless about the many assumptions of me wanting to become a nurse, there
was one comment that always stuck with me and that left me conflicted and still
to this day it makes me angry. I told one of the OR doctors about how I
wanted to be either a doctor or PA, and to his smirk remark he told me it’d be
better if I become a PA because when women become doctors they aren’t able to
take care of the family like they should be. I was eighteen so I held back from
saying anything. However, looking back I wish I would have questioned why he
thought women were the only ones who took care of a family. Why did he think a
woman can’t be a doctor and a mom at the same time? It was then when I later
realized that women face such unnecessary adversities when working in a “man’s world”. As I watched Working Girl (1988), I
immediately thought about this experience as an eighteen-year-old. I did more than relate to this film.
While it's arguable that
it’s still similar in today’s times, and especially in the time period of the
1980’s, women had to make do, working in a world of sexism and work harder to
get where they wanted to go. Throughout this film we see examples, big and small,
of how women are constantly being put down and not taken seriously because of
their gender. I wish I could confidently say that this doesn’t relate to our
world forty years later, but I’m not sure I can.
However, this film isn’t
all that simple, it does conflict me. All throughout the first part of the
movie Tess is living in a sexist business world of disrespectful men where
she’s faced with adversity. What I don’t understand is how women try to provoke
female to female empowerment because of an unequal patriarchy; however,
Katherine and Tess are roadblocks to each other’s road to success. I’m stuck on
how even though women have to try and make a career in a man’s world, other
women also add to the road of adversities. You would think that women would
stand together in supporting each other, or that because women are often
disrespected by men, women would show some respect to each other but I guess in
reality, demonstrated in Working Girl, women not only have to work against the
patriarchy but as well as betray each other in order to succeed.
The film was realistic
in demonstrating what it truly means for a woman to be working in a man’s
world. Women aren’t taken seriously. Especially when working in an environment/
profession that is heavily operated by men. I feel strongly about this because
I have experienced this first handedly. I worked a few summers as an umpire for
girls’ softball, a sport I’ve played all my life and have a lot of experience
in. However, my experience doesn’t matter because the majority of umpires are
all male, so I was never taken seriously by other coaches. The coaches
always questioned my judgement and calls, and had no problem screaming in my
face. Even though I’ve played for over 15 years, and have multiple
certifications, I was never taken seriously. Similar to Tess, when in a taxi meeting
with a potential new boss, she was quick to learn that her potential boss
didn’t want to hire a new assistance but wanted nothing less than sex. The
camera angle showed an up-close view to what made it seem that Tess and Bob
were sitting uncomfortably close. To make things even more uncomfortable, he
just did a line of cocaine right in front of Tess. Bob’s attempt to show Tess a professional
video ended up being a distasteful porn scene. While the disturbing video
continues to play in the background, Tess realized Bob didn’t want to take her
serious as an assistant and only for his sexual desires. As I watched this
scene and thought as if I were in the shoes of Tess, I’d be morbidly creeped
out, which is what the majority of the audience experiences.
The film doesn't just show how some men add adversities to women in the work environment. It also exhibits
how women, too, lack respect for each other and can add roadblocks to another woman’s
road to success. As mentioned early, this is conflicting me. Katherine comes
off as doing very well with her career, she hired an all-women’s office, she
stands tall, speaks firmly, and dresses professionally. It was one of Tess’s
first days working for Katherine, when she gave her boss what would eventually
end up as a ground-breaking proposal. So desperate for her own success she
steals Tess’s idea and tells her that the plan failed. Why would she go against
her? She told Tess working for her is a two-way street, promising she’d help
Tess with her career too. The only answer I have is that the constant adversities of working in a man's world, forces women like Katherine to
betray Tess so that she can find success in her career.
Although, Kathrine isn’t
the only one who betrayed another woman. In some ways, we could argue that Tess
isn’t so innocent. Yes, Kathrine completely stole Tess’s business proposal, but
the way in which Tess steals it back can be seen as betrayal against another
woman. Tess was sitting there snooping through her boss’s voicemails and comes
to find out that Katherine stole her business plan. Instead of possible weighing out other
options, perhaps confronting Kathrine, or telling Jack the truth from the
beginning, Tess immediately chose to go against Katherine’s back and
impersonate her job. This ended up
working in favor for Tess. Tess basically stole Katherine’s man and her job
while also making Katherine look like a fool, calling her a “bony ass.” I am
conflicted on where I stand. Sure, Katherine deserves to be punished, but
perhaps she chose to steal Tess’s business plan because it’s so hard to be
successful in a man’s world so the temptation of stealing another woman’s
success was just too appealing. Tess going against Katherine relates back to one
of my favorite quotes from this film: “No, I'm trying to make it better! I'm
not gonna spend the rest of my life working my ass off and getting nowhere just
because I followed rules that I had nothing to do with setting up, OK?” Tess
felt that after getting ripped off, the only option she had was to break the
rules so she could become successful. Waiting around working her ass off wasn’t
getting her anywhere so she, too, chose betrayal.
This
film does a good job showing the practicality of what it's like for a woman
trying to create a career for herself in a man’s world. Not only do some men
show disrespect and create roadblocks, but women too. The movie shows how both
women create conflict for one another. The film goes to show that women aren’t
always supporting each other and go against each other. I blame this kind of
behavior because women are constantly trying to prove themselves for men who
don’t take them seriously which then forces women to betray one another so they
can succeed in their career. Unfortunately, this is the harsh reality that this
film brings us and it’s quite conflicting. Maybe Tess was right, maybe a girl really doesn’t get anywhere by following
the rules. Can we blame Katherine’s behavior when she’s just trying to create
her career in a man’s world? I have a hard time swallowing this pill of reality
because it goes against what I, perhaps, want to believe. I want to believe women empower each other, stick up for each other and support one another,
however this film illustrates that this is unfortunately not always the case.
Works Cited:
Nichols, Mike. Director. Working Girl, 20th Century Fox, 20
Dec. 1988,
Comments
Post a Comment