The Danger of a Single Story Reflection:
What experience do I have with a “single-story”?
I re-watched the video of the single-story reflection on YouTube that my professor had us listen to in order to complete this portion of assessment 3. I found this woman's story very intriguing. I thought of the experiences in my life where I've dealt with this. I had many experiences, but the one that hit home the most was within the past five years. In May of 2013 I was hired at the University of Wisconsin as one of the Radiology managers. My background in Radiology was extensive. I had graduated in 1996 from Western College in La Crosse, WI with an Associate's Degree in Radiography. I worked in mobile x-ray for a couple of years in the Midwest, South and East coast. I then performed MRI research and clinical MRI at the Medical College of Wisconsin and Froedtert hospital. I worked their for three years in their Bio Physics & Radiology departments. The next fifteen to twenty years I worked at multiple clinics and hospitals in Minnesota and worked my way up from a technologist, to a lead technologist, to an Operations Manager running three clinics and a Radiology department at a hospital. I achieved all of this with an Associate's Degree and a lot of hard life experiences. Now, I probably could have had quicker success if I would have gone back to school and received my Bachelor's Degree, but I decided not to. I finally arrived at UW-Madison and started my new job. UW Health is a great organization to work for and we have a lot of state of the art equipment at our fingertips. The management team for UW Radiology is split up between in-patient hospitals and ambulatory clinics. It has three directors, eight managers, five supervisors and multiple lead techs for each modality. I had been working about six months on the job and I was working on a project with one of the other managers. Credentialing came up because she was finishing her Master's degree. I soon found out that a majority of the managers had or were finishing up their Master's degrees. Two to three of the managers had their Bachelor's degree and I was the only one with an Associate's Degree. In fact, when I applied for the position, a Bachelor's degree was mandated for the position. I applied anyway, because I thought that my work experience would be beneficial. When I interviewed with six radiologists and two directors, there were many questions as to my experience and what I could offer the organization. They thought my answers were well thought out and even though I did not have a Bachelor's degree I could still be a vital asset to UW Health, and they offered me the position. So, when this manager and I were talking about her Master's she asked me what my credentials were. I proudly said that I had an Associates degree, but I had a ten plus years of supervising and managing experience in multiple modalities and geographic locations. When this manager heard me say that I could instantly tell that she was disappointed with me. She asked how I was even hired for this position because I did not have a Bachelor's degree and it was required for the position. The weeks that followed were frustrating because you could tell that she was angry that I had not had the requirements to get the position and she had worked very hard to achieve her Master's degree. When working on the project she would throw out little jabs to make me feel inferior and then would say "maybe you'll understand that someday when you finish your Master's." This soon spread to the other managers across the campus and in our group meetings it was very apparent that they knew I only had an Associate's degree. I felt like the minority, which I was, so I decided to bring it up to my director. I wanted to know her opinion about my schooling. She thought that I should go back for my degree to become a more well-rounded manager. Both of my parents were educators, so I knew the importance of a good education. I told my director that I would be willing to start taking classes that Fall. The next thing she said absolutely dumbfounded me. She said that people without a Bachelor's degree should not make more than $60,000 a year. She knew my salary and that I made more than that, so I did not know where she was going with the conversation. I agreed with her that I thought education was very important, but you couldn't base knowledge by a dollar amount. I said "if that is the case, then why wouldn't the president of the United States be the highest paid person?" There are staff that I manage that get paid a very good wage that only have a certificate and no degree. That is because they get increases each year based on their performance and years of experience. They are masters of their craft. There are also very intelligent people that run companies that do not have degrees. Our own Governor of Wisconsin, Scott Walker, doesn't have a degree. I was very surprised that people could be so narrow-minded when looking at education versus experience. Within the last five years I have thrived in my position and showed a lot of the managers how to implement certain things based on my experience. I have a good rapport with the managers now because they have seen what I can do and how I approach certain situations. I have also been taking classes from the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee to further my education, based on my terms, not because I need to. UW Health also changed their position descriptions as of March 2017 saying that a Bachelor's degree is preferred, but an Associate's Degree is acceptable along with work experience. It was never told to us why the change was made, but I do know that a manager was hired with an Associate's degree and twenty years of experience. I believe that they could not find enough qualified candidates mandating a Bachelor's degree. You cannot put people in silos. We need to be more open-minded and judge less by the cover of the book.
What connections do you see to stereotypes and generalizations?
The stereotypes and generalizations that I mentioned above are referenced to how smart a person is based upon their educational background. It's funny that before people actually knew what my educational level was, they treated me as an equal. Once they found out what my educational level was they looked down at me like I wasn't worthy to have my position. Stereotypes are characteristics that we apply to others on the basis of their national, ethnic or gender groups. 1 These people were stereotyping me like a football player who is all muscles and no brains. I have worked with them for five years and have their respect now because they have seen the body of work that I can produce.
This is very similar to the experience that I spoke about in previous blogs about my experience in Mississippi where once people found out I was a Yankee they didn't want to have anything to do with me. They didn't know my values or the type of person I really was, but because I was from Milwaukee I was somebody that they did not want to affiliate with. I spoke about this previously how you should not judge a book by it's cover.
When have you taken steps to counteract the effects of thinking as demonstrated in the Danger of the Single Story video?
The steps that I have taken to counteract the effects of thinking in silos are to be self aware of the people that I am talking to and learn more about the topic of conversation and/or their beliefs before making a statement or placing judgement on someone or something. Dealing with past experiences where I did judge people to early, I can say that I've had to back track or apologize for some of the statements that I made. I think being older and having been judged has made me more aware and how I did not like being judged. Once this happens to you, you become more aware of what you don't want to be treated like.
The second step I have taken is to not judge or stereotype our sick patients. I used to think immediately about some of these patient that they just did not take care of themselves. One day I found out that one of the gentleman that I thought this about was an ex-military man that had PTSD and was having a very hard time coping with the real world. These types of learning moments help me reflect on why I got into healthcare in the first place. I shouldn't judge people, but instead just listen to people and take care of them. Stereotyping is a way to define a category of people, and we should focus on treating people all the same way. 2
The third step that I'm taking to counteract the single story thinking is to pass on these traits to my sons, friends and my staff. I bring up these experiences with them and try to have them learn from my mistakes. I try to give guidance when needed.
1. Schneider DJ. The psychology of stereotyping. Guilford Press; 2004. Accessed Jun 28, 2018.
2. Cook R, Cusack S. Gender stereotyping: Transnational legal perspectives. University of Pennsylvania Press; 2011. Accessed Jun 28, 2018.
I re-watched the video of the single-story reflection on YouTube that my professor had us listen to in order to complete this portion of assessment 3. I found this woman's story very intriguing. I thought of the experiences in my life where I've dealt with this. I had many experiences, but the one that hit home the most was within the past five years. In May of 2013 I was hired at the University of Wisconsin as one of the Radiology managers. My background in Radiology was extensive. I had graduated in 1996 from Western College in La Crosse, WI with an Associate's Degree in Radiography. I worked in mobile x-ray for a couple of years in the Midwest, South and East coast. I then performed MRI research and clinical MRI at the Medical College of Wisconsin and Froedtert hospital. I worked their for three years in their Bio Physics & Radiology departments. The next fifteen to twenty years I worked at multiple clinics and hospitals in Minnesota and worked my way up from a technologist, to a lead technologist, to an Operations Manager running three clinics and a Radiology department at a hospital. I achieved all of this with an Associate's Degree and a lot of hard life experiences. Now, I probably could have had quicker success if I would have gone back to school and received my Bachelor's Degree, but I decided not to. I finally arrived at UW-Madison and started my new job. UW Health is a great organization to work for and we have a lot of state of the art equipment at our fingertips. The management team for UW Radiology is split up between in-patient hospitals and ambulatory clinics. It has three directors, eight managers, five supervisors and multiple lead techs for each modality. I had been working about six months on the job and I was working on a project with one of the other managers. Credentialing came up because she was finishing her Master's degree. I soon found out that a majority of the managers had or were finishing up their Master's degrees. Two to three of the managers had their Bachelor's degree and I was the only one with an Associate's Degree. In fact, when I applied for the position, a Bachelor's degree was mandated for the position. I applied anyway, because I thought that my work experience would be beneficial. When I interviewed with six radiologists and two directors, there were many questions as to my experience and what I could offer the organization. They thought my answers were well thought out and even though I did not have a Bachelor's degree I could still be a vital asset to UW Health, and they offered me the position. So, when this manager and I were talking about her Master's she asked me what my credentials were. I proudly said that I had an Associates degree, but I had a ten plus years of supervising and managing experience in multiple modalities and geographic locations. When this manager heard me say that I could instantly tell that she was disappointed with me. She asked how I was even hired for this position because I did not have a Bachelor's degree and it was required for the position. The weeks that followed were frustrating because you could tell that she was angry that I had not had the requirements to get the position and she had worked very hard to achieve her Master's degree. When working on the project she would throw out little jabs to make me feel inferior and then would say "maybe you'll understand that someday when you finish your Master's." This soon spread to the other managers across the campus and in our group meetings it was very apparent that they knew I only had an Associate's degree. I felt like the minority, which I was, so I decided to bring it up to my director. I wanted to know her opinion about my schooling. She thought that I should go back for my degree to become a more well-rounded manager. Both of my parents were educators, so I knew the importance of a good education. I told my director that I would be willing to start taking classes that Fall. The next thing she said absolutely dumbfounded me. She said that people without a Bachelor's degree should not make more than $60,000 a year. She knew my salary and that I made more than that, so I did not know where she was going with the conversation. I agreed with her that I thought education was very important, but you couldn't base knowledge by a dollar amount. I said "if that is the case, then why wouldn't the president of the United States be the highest paid person?" There are staff that I manage that get paid a very good wage that only have a certificate and no degree. That is because they get increases each year based on their performance and years of experience. They are masters of their craft. There are also very intelligent people that run companies that do not have degrees. Our own Governor of Wisconsin, Scott Walker, doesn't have a degree. I was very surprised that people could be so narrow-minded when looking at education versus experience. Within the last five years I have thrived in my position and showed a lot of the managers how to implement certain things based on my experience. I have a good rapport with the managers now because they have seen what I can do and how I approach certain situations. I have also been taking classes from the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee to further my education, based on my terms, not because I need to. UW Health also changed their position descriptions as of March 2017 saying that a Bachelor's degree is preferred, but an Associate's Degree is acceptable along with work experience. It was never told to us why the change was made, but I do know that a manager was hired with an Associate's degree and twenty years of experience. I believe that they could not find enough qualified candidates mandating a Bachelor's degree. You cannot put people in silos. We need to be more open-minded and judge less by the cover of the book.
What connections do you see to stereotypes and generalizations?
The stereotypes and generalizations that I mentioned above are referenced to how smart a person is based upon their educational background. It's funny that before people actually knew what my educational level was, they treated me as an equal. Once they found out what my educational level was they looked down at me like I wasn't worthy to have my position. Stereotypes are characteristics that we apply to others on the basis of their national, ethnic or gender groups. 1 These people were stereotyping me like a football player who is all muscles and no brains. I have worked with them for five years and have their respect now because they have seen the body of work that I can produce.
This is very similar to the experience that I spoke about in previous blogs about my experience in Mississippi where once people found out I was a Yankee they didn't want to have anything to do with me. They didn't know my values or the type of person I really was, but because I was from Milwaukee I was somebody that they did not want to affiliate with. I spoke about this previously how you should not judge a book by it's cover.
When have you taken steps to counteract the effects of thinking as demonstrated in the Danger of the Single Story video?
The steps that I have taken to counteract the effects of thinking in silos are to be self aware of the people that I am talking to and learn more about the topic of conversation and/or their beliefs before making a statement or placing judgement on someone or something. Dealing with past experiences where I did judge people to early, I can say that I've had to back track or apologize for some of the statements that I made. I think being older and having been judged has made me more aware and how I did not like being judged. Once this happens to you, you become more aware of what you don't want to be treated like.
The second step I have taken is to not judge or stereotype our sick patients. I used to think immediately about some of these patient that they just did not take care of themselves. One day I found out that one of the gentleman that I thought this about was an ex-military man that had PTSD and was having a very hard time coping with the real world. These types of learning moments help me reflect on why I got into healthcare in the first place. I shouldn't judge people, but instead just listen to people and take care of them. Stereotyping is a way to define a category of people, and we should focus on treating people all the same way. 2
The third step that I'm taking to counteract the single story thinking is to pass on these traits to my sons, friends and my staff. I bring up these experiences with them and try to have them learn from my mistakes. I try to give guidance when needed.
1. Schneider DJ. The psychology of stereotyping. Guilford Press; 2004. Accessed Jun 28, 2018.
2. Cook R, Cusack S. Gender stereotyping: Transnational legal perspectives. University of Pennsylvania Press; 2011. Accessed Jun 28, 2018.
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