Vision 20/20

 

“For God’s sake, this is 2020! Women have equal rights; Ruth didn’t fight for our rights in vain. I wish all men in my life were like you, honey. I get so frustrated when women just give up or even worse- accept such injustice!”, Celine was outrageously expressing her frustration to her loving husband of 20 years. Ron & Celine were high school sweethearts; married in early twenties and now proud parents of their only daughter- Rudy and dog- Jimmy. Ron had learnt to let her talk out what was bubbling inside & say nothing when she is so worked up. He could only hear Celine’s love and trust on their relationship and hugged her gently.

Celine decided to call her besties as only they could provide the pep talk that she needed. As they started talking, Betty asked, “Are you telling me that you have never experienced such thing ever in your life? I agree we don’t have the fights that our Moms’/Grandmas’ generations to face; but keep your eyes open. It’s everywhere and most of us are either in denial or just being complacent. You choose your own reality and make peace with it; that’s all. Once you accept that things are supposed to be this way and just start choosing to react differently; you cannot even see what’s right in front of you.” Others kept on chatting away and drifting to other topics; but that certainly struck a chord in Celine’s mind.

On Sunday, they had to go for the barbecue at his colleague’s ranch. Celine was getting ready and chose to wear her new dress. Weather was predicted to cross 90 degrees. As always, she asked Ron, “Honey, how about this one; would it be appropriate for today’s party?” Ron took a good look at her and said, “You are looking so pretty; how did I get so lucky? But how about that white polo dress for today? This one is showing too much of what I would like to see & not my conservative colleagues…” Although Celine wanted to flaunt her new shopping; she simply changed to her white polo dress as Ron had suggested. On the way home, Ron was sharing his discussion with his colleagues. “We are hiring a new candidate to help me on this exciting project. We were interviewing few candidates this week and met quite interesting bunch. One guy with 20 years of industry experience and yet couldn’t feel that confident vibe from him. Then, there was one lady who seemed qualified and all; but I couldn’t ask her directly, if she had family/kids. You know, HR has tightened the guidelines on what you can ask or not.  I simply asked her if she has constraints on working in the lab. You need to be on your feet when you are in the lab and God forbid if she has young kids; how can she keep up with such challenging role. Our labs are not a place for someone who has special needs! Anyways, I think we will go with that Berkley graduate instead. Being a bachelor, he will have all the time and no excuses. Oh wait, did you know what I heard today? Barbara, if you recall hearing about her from me; is getting promoted to be a VP! All these policies of bridging the gap and all nonsense; suddenly they have been promoting females just because they are like a silver bullet.” He kept on sharing further; but Betty’s words kept ringing in Celine’s ears. “…, you cannot even see what’s right in front of you.”