She Singled Me Out Because I'm a Woman: Gender/ed Dynamics and Workplace Bullying

Sample

After finishing a 9-month internship while pursuing her animal ecology degree, Emery was about to graduate and was very excited for her next career move. She had always known that she wanted to work in nature, and the environmental education internship she had just completed (along with the two others prior to that) had more than confirmed that this was what she wanted to do. The fact that she had won a prestigious award for her innovative dragonfly programming was icing on the cake! She applied for several positions and finally landed an interview. During the course of her interview, she met several of the current employees at the nature center, including Dana. Dana was the environmental educator at the center . . . and while she was friendly enough, Emery got a strange vibe from her but couldn’t place her finger on why. After the interview, Will (the center director) told her that she lacked the 5–10 years of experience they were looking for, but could possibly be hired on as a naturalist who would do education programs for kids. Emery knew it was a long shot, but she was happy for the interview experience even if she didn’t get the position. Miraculously, she was offered the environmental educator position and gladly accepted. She called her mom, who was also a naturalist, with the good news. “I got the job!” she exclaimed.