In the summer 1977 I was working as a waitress in a Wyoming national park lodge.  The restaurant cook had no problem with sauntering through the kitchen and patting the women employees (myself included) on the rear end, comparing our buttocks with the cows he had on his ranch.

In 1992 I was working for a federal agency at the Denver Federal Center in Lakewood. I was openly propositioned by a male co-worker, whose wife also worked at the Federal Center but with a different agency. I later learned that other female co-workers had been propositioned by the same man.

It never occurred to me to report either of these incidents to higher-ups. In the WY situation, retaliation by the cook would have been a given; he had great power in the kitchen. With the Federal Center situation, we females just disgustedly laughed about it. I don’t remember anyone mentioning that we should report it.

Just because these two scenarios happened decades ago doesn’t mean I and the other victims have forgotten them. I honestly don’t think I was emotionally scarred by these incidents, at least in the long term, but that does NOT make me disbelieve the reactions of other women in similar or worse situations.

Marianna Young

Monte Vista