Blog 2

This summer I worked at a predominately male steel mill, Steel Dynamics INC. Even though the majority of the people were male there, I loved it! I worked on the grounds crew with five old men, and three guys that were my age. At the beginning my boss, who meant nothing by what he always said (I know his wife and she would not stand for it if he was serious) but he would always tell me that I had “women’s work” to do around the shop. His “women’s work” consisted of sweeping the shop, cleaning the table off and cleaning out the fridge in our break room (which was in the shop). Every time he would say that I would fire something back like well Nick (one of the younger guys that I worked with) better grab and broom and get sweeping if there is “women’s work” to do. After this come back a few times they finally stopped looking at me and saying there was “women’s work” to do. He instead switched to the guys that I worked with and said that. It really became quite funny.
The big thing that did kind of bother me though, was when it came to things, which required lifting. I am sure that they did not purposely mean to exclude me. But they still did none the less. We would always get loads of grass seed and have to unload them…I was not the one that they would call; it would be Jake or Ryan. I never said anything to them about it so I guess in a sense it is my fault for not standing up for myself. And then I guess it was not really their faults either, because there were some things that I was not able to lift that I tried to do.