We are all aware that sexism in the workplace is a hot topic lately, and while it seems to be improving, we are still so far from being where we should be in 2014. So far, in fact, that sexism still runs rampant in the highest government in the United States. Yup, even female senators are consistently judged by their peers based on their weight and appearance. Just ask New York senator Kirsten Gillibrand.
Kirsten Gillibrand, a Democratic senator for New York, has been making the media rounds to promote her new book, “Off the Sidelines,” and in an interview with People magazine, she shared just who the real pigs are in Washington.
In Off the Sidelines, Gillibrand, 47, shares a sobering incident in the congressional gym, where an older, male colleague told her, “Good thing you’re working out, because you wouldn’t want to get porky!” She replied, “Thanks, asshole.” On another occasion, she writes, after she dropped 50 lbs. one of her fellow Senate members approached her, squeezed her stomach, and said, “Don’t lose too much weight now. I like my girls chubby!”
“It was all statements that were being made by men who were well into their 60s, 70s or 80s,” she says. “They had no clue that those are inappropriate things to say to a pregnant woman or a woman who just had a baby or to women in general,” added Gillibrand.
Is “not knowing” still an excuse that we’re willing to accept though? How much longer will ...
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