Week 3: The Assertive Playing Field – #AlphaFemaleFriday

Week 3: The Assertive Playing Field – #AlphaFemaleFriday

“ WEEK 3 / 133 – 133 WEEKS TO SUCCESS ”

We need to have an honest discussion, and that discussion is about the biases in the assertive playing fields. Imagine three standard American football fields: one for men, one for women, and one for “others”. “Others”, with emphasis on the double quotation marks, have always been outsiders, but the intersectionality movement seeks to change that. When discussing intersectionality, we’re talking about the areas where oppression, domination, and discrimination exist.

Given the nature of my project, #133WeeksToSuccess, my main focus is on intersectionality in the workplace. Intersectionality, in short, is the connection between the likes of racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, xenophobia, classism, etc. The list goes on, but the most important takeaway from intersectionality is that these various societal institutions are largely interconnected and cannot be examined separately from one another. This means that while feminism certainly affects men and women across the board, we cannot ignore how feminism affects the different circumstances of each individual: an upper class individual versus a working class, an able-bodied citizen versus one who is mentally or physically disabled.

As for my career, I did not always gravitate towards the hospitality industry. I saw it as something my mother had done and is still doing for over twenty years, and I didn’t realize the gravity of how important her and my contributions to the hospitality industry were until I grew older. The more I worked in the hospitality industry, mainly in the salad bowl that is Manhattan, the more I realized how much the industry has flourished with the invaluable influences from women and minority figures.

Working in the hospitality industry has given a voice to women like me. While I did not chose to be born a woman or a minority, I am proud to say that I work in the industry that will not hold me back because of where I came from. At the same time, while my industry offers many benefits and opportunities to women across the board, we cannot ignore how it affects those whose voices are still growing.

For now, I focus on working harder and smarter to give myself a better economic standing and to expand my career. Eventually, that focus will shift towards growing a family. In between of all this, I hope to have my place in this industry so that I can help give voices to those who are too afraid or unable to speak. Here’s looking to the future which we, together, all of us, can create – one step and one person at a time.

Cheers,

Kelly

@AlphaFemSociety tweets by @KellyRGonzales

About:

Each week, I take a tip from Lois P. Frankel’s book, Nice Girls Still Don’t Get the Corner Office, and explore how each of these tips affect myself and other women in similar positions on the road to becoming the women we want to be. There are far and few between who are a few steps behind me, and many more who are far advanced. I found that Lois P. Frankel’s advice applied to novice, intermediates, and experts alike. It helped me see that I was already doing right, served as a reminder to keep on doing what I was doing and how to keep that momentum going. The book also showed me areas where I could improve, and gave realistic tips to jump on board. There are a total of 133 tips, and explore one tip per week in a program I call: 133 Weeks to Success.

Join the movement using the hashtag #133WeeksToSuccess with posts which are posted every #AlphaFemaleFriday.