Moving on to Lockheed Electronics....job #2

My new job at Lockheed Electronics was really just a continuation of the one at RCA. I was the only "girl buyer" on the floor among a dozen or so middle aged white men, most of whom just didn't understand the concept of equality. "Hey honey, would you go grab me a cup of coffee?" "Hey miss, bring me an ashtray, would ya?" "What? You don't like the smell of cigar smoke at 8AM? What's wrong wit cha?" I was known as "the libber" or "that girl who thinks she's a buyer". For our Christmas grab bag (we could still have Christmas parties, not holiday parties), I received a pair of mens boxer shorts because I really wanted to be a man. (I gave a tin cup and pencils to the cigar smoking guy who spent all Friday afternoons lining up his breakfast, lunch and dinner dates with suppliers for the next week! I could give out the abuse as well as take it.)

There was a pipe smoking buyer in the office, too. He lit up first thing in the morning and chain smoked his pipe all day. At least he was pleasant to me (like he would be to a lap dog). There was a man who chain smoked cigarettes (Camels) all day hacking up globs of phlegm. That poor guy was hugely obese, was diabetic and shuffled around in bedroom slippers because of the damage that diabetes had done to his circulation.

My manager was a nice guy to me because he had daughters my age. At Christmas, the suppliers asked for our license plate numbers and told us all to leave our car doors unlocked in the parking lot. I received some nice bottles of wine. When I found a gift certificate to Macys in my car (a big no-no), I gave it to my boss, who told me to put it in my pocket book and go spend it because I had put up with a lot of crap all year.

During this time, I called the EEOC and had them start proceedings against RCA for wage discrimination. My father still worked for RCA and as a top executive, had an office at corporate headquarters in New York City. He heard about the EEOC investigation at staff meetings in the city and kept me posted as the noose tightened on the manager who had locked the door and screamed at me. I was still nervous and not altogether sure that there wasn't a super secret black list of problem women in business that my name was on somewhere. As it turned out, the wheels of justice turned slowly and I had moved on yet again before that issue was settled.

One at a time, in 1979, several of my young male colleagues had moved on to work in procurement for Jersey Central Power & Light Company in Morristown. Finally it was my turn to get the call, and I happily gave my two week notice and left.