PK and discrimination against competent women

[Anonymous <no_email@fake.address>]

I am a highly educated professional woman in the healthcare field.  I recently held a position which involved basically building a women's health services department.  The community was lovely with many years history of struggle to establish the services that I was able to establish.  And - the influence of the improvements (brought by my work) on the  health of women and infants was dramatic.

The entire time, I fought unbelievable obsticals because of the right wing attitudes towards female leadership (especially since I also happened to be divorsed and a single mom) that were the majority opinion of the medical community.  It was the most incredible culture shock I've ever encountered (and that is my home region and I'm somewhat of a conservative myself!) - being treated like a witch and scapegoat despite the quality of my work and dedication to improving the health of the community.  I saw professional, competent women "driven out" of the community repeatedly during my time there.

Beyond that there was seldom praise and almost always criticism (verbal abuse), including what I believe was religious harassment, for my behavior. They even called me "evil" and told me I didn't know how to "walk like Jesus"- my supervisors did! The male leadership seemed to question my credibility at every turn and said I lacked the ability to lead - which is why they were making the crazy-making decisions about things that made my work environment hostile and created an unexceptible turn-over rate in my department. In the end I was terminated for "causing conflict and not being able to lead" and replaced with someone far less qualified - but she was married. I learned later that they had an under the table rule about supporting married folks only on their staff. 

One supervisor was a dedicated member of PK. I found him likeable - but totally culturely blind and abusive to minorities. I am in a healthier place now and my abilities to be a strong leader in women's health have been validated here at the major university where I direct similar services.  There were also efforts to keep me from succeeding here by sending some very negative referrences about my time there.  I was heart-broken by it - and it could have distroyed my career if I wans't working for a woman who is sensitive to these cultural issues.  Despite my successes here - I remember what was happening to the women there before I started my mission - and I pray for them daily.  Thanks for letting me share!