Week 3 - Eureka Moment!

OK, Thanks to my friend Lauren for showing me how to post to my blog without posting a comment to myself!

My Eureka Moment this week - hmmm... there were two. First, on Sunday, my husband sat down to watch some mindless tv. He put on the NASCAR race on the Speed channel. There was a commercial for John Deere tractors...nothing unusual Speed TV is full of "male stuff" - although I enjoy NASCAR. Anyway - this commercial showed cowboy boots and jean scuffing through the dirt, a pair of heavy duty work gloves and a person shovelling. They showed the particular tractor they were promoting and went into their finer points of the product. The ending segment of the commercial - a woman (full clothed and in denim!) and dirty/sweaty received the tractor from the delivery and was shown using the tractor working on the farm! Wow what a surprise ! I actually commented out loud to my husband - look it's a woman! They actually have a commercial with a woman fully clothed receiving and using farm equipment! He just looked at me like I had 9 heads... he grew up on a farm and his sisters were as well adapted at using equipment as the brothers.

My second Eureka moment happened at work Tuesday. I typically receive a newletter regarding employment law in NJ. While reviewing the two that I received while on vacation, I was astounded at one article. NJ amended its Law Against Discrimination last summer to include 'gender identity or expression' among the list of protected characteristics. What does this mean? Well, basically, it means that employers can no longer discriminate (fire, lower pay, less or no promotions, etc.) against employees for chaning gender physiologically or for dressing, behaving or otherwise identifying with a gender other than their "assigned sex at birth". Well, you might be thinking...what's that mean? For organizations - if there is a dress code and grooming policy setting different standards for males/females, organizations can't disallow (on the basis of the person's gender) any dress behavior or appearance that is generally acceptable. Transgender, gender queer, the law now protects their rights to be themselves in the work place. Unfortunately, while the law may support them, do you think that the general public would be able to handle a male>female transgendered person in full 'female' attire assisting them in any corporation (I think female>male is generally more accepted). For me, though, reading this article, I felt a sense of promise that as a culture we are taking baby steps moving forward from the societal norms that have been held in place by those in power for so long!