When Volunteer Organizations Promote Gender Inequality

Some things that are happening in 2016 should be common knowledge for all people in America; gender equality, racial equality, gay marriage legalization, and the like. It always astounds me that someone can be ignorant and under a rock about social topics that are so often in mainstream media. It is even more astounding when it isn't just one ignorant individual but an entire company. This is especially astounding within volunteer organizations which should have a broad knowledge of diverse topics that are associated with the social topic they focus on. I have two stories in which gender inequality was promoted through an organization trying stop some sort of inequality.

Before I go into these personal stories I should state that names have been changed and organizations will not be named in this post. Additionally these incidents do not negate the organizations' positive work for the community at large. All the organizations I have worked with have done good reputable work in their communities but that doesn't mean there isn't room for improvement especially within their core staff's development discussed here. Now that that is out of the way--

The first incident is one that all the UCF Alternative Break Coordinators are familiar with as we were all present. Due to this I shall keep it brief but essentially on a coordinator break trip, we worked with an organization which builds ramps for disabled people so they have access to their homes again. The organization was represented by one person who would be our site leader. While he was very knowledgeable about the ramp building and the organization he represented there that day; he left a bad taste in a few coordinators mouths. This man, we shall call him Rudolph, was very caring and kind with old fashion values. Despite encouraging the women to use power tools he left a guiding lingering hand on us and made comments about our weight and his own ideals of beauty. Because I was not personally targeted by his comments, I cannot give you quotes from Rudolph but when we got to reflecting in the van about the day, his attitude towards women was brought up. We came to the conclusion that despite working for an organization which deals with inequality in the physically disabled population, Rudolph knew little to nothing about inequality in other populations and was perfectly blissful in his ignorance.

The more personal story is from a time when I volunteered with my boyfriend, Topher, working with a company which helps the homeless population in Central Florida. We were essentially in a home depot/warehouse type place, unloading stock, organizing, and cleaning for the time we volunteered. We were with a few other gentleman, we'll call Dasher and Dancer, and our supervisors were both men. One supervisor, who we shall call Blitzen, was in charge of giving us tasks for the last half hour of our shift. While I was out with Dasher organizing some light bulbs, Blitzen turned to Topher and asked,

"Where is the girl? I have a job for her".

Let it be known that I have not talked to Blitzen, he has not seen a resume, and he knows nothing about me that he cannot conclude from looking at my physical appearance and the way I organize light bulbs. Despite this he somehow knows he has the perfect job for me. Before Topher can answer his question a truck pulled in.

I will give you reader the knowledge that to this date I have loaded and unloaded at least 30 trucks full of heavy wooden sets, props, and costumes for various theatre competitions. I did this with about 10 other people, mostly female, in between 8-20 minutes depending on if part of the competition was unload time and if we were bringing in a full house complete with AstroTurf yard, or just a living room scene. Back to the story.

As the truck pulled in I finished my light bulb task and walked into the back room with Dasher.

"You, you, and you" Blizten said, pointing at Topher, Dasher, and Dancer, "Go help unload."

(note: Topher is lanky and does most of his weightlifting training by picking up his phone to play Hearthstone on the regular. Again this is knowledge you can't assume looking at him but my point is Topher doesn't look like a bodybuilder, nor did Dasher or Dancer).

"Girl, come with me I have some bowls for you to clean"

let's just pause there....

bowls....

to clean....

just for me.....

who is being addressed not by her name....

by her gender....

I am sure you can spot the problem already but let's dig a little deeper here and look at the options Blitzen had:

He could've asked our skill set when it came to heavy lifting. I understand things need to be done efficiently and therefore asking for our resume might take too long but it was still an option.
He could've said who wants to clean bowls and who wants to unload, to all four of us.
Looking at the two tasks and the people he had, he could think to send some men in BECAUSE without knowing personal histories, the physical strength of the average man is superior to the average woman. I am not average in the slightest *hairflip* and know for a fact I am better at heavy lifting than Topher but without knowing the nurture, nature states that men doing heavy lifting is a better bet.

So Blitzen went with choice three which is annoying but saved time and was a quick way to get both jobs done... EXCEPT he wasn't looking at two jobs when he made me bowl-cleaner. Before the truck arrived Blitzen had specifically designated the bowl cleaning as a woman's job for "the girl". While technically the average man is stronger than the average woman, there is NO gender or genetic by birth predisposition to superior cleaning and attention to detail.

Peter Pan, the Never Ending Story, Resorts Wold Theater Sentosa 2014

Looking at someone there is NO possible way to determine who is better at cleaning unless Topher, Dancer, and Dasher looked like lost boys next to a spotless Me-Wendy who just dropped into Neverland.

But let's be real I'm way more of a Molly Aster type girl, especially after a day of volunteering.

Peter and the Starcatchers, Orlando Shakespeare Theater 2015

Now I did clean those bowls for 20 minutes while fuming and left fully intending to write this post and never volunteer there again BUT that isn't enough. I am an activist and I need some way to be active about this injustice. Reflecting on these two stories I have come up with a decent solution~ diversity training.

It is required at Volunteer UCF that coordinators, who are expected to pass it on to participants, who will hopefully spread it in their every day life. This in my opinion, should be an essential part of training for all volunteer organizations. There was nothing in the 10 minute volunteer video we watched on site about diversity and it could've been done so simply. The problem is it isn't even on the organization's radar. They are focused on the one issue that their work directly impacts without taking into account the other social issues in the world that their staff should be aware of. This better training will lead to a more successful organization. And this doesn't just go for non-profits, every business, household, and group would benefit from being diverse. We tell high school students to diversify electives and interests to be more appealing to colleges. We should also be socially diversifying ourselves to make each other better people in ultimately a better world. Expand your knowledge to create positive change.