On January 21, my group went to the District Attorney’s office in Brooklyn to interview Michelle Kaminsky, a District Attorney’s assistant. While there, we asked her about how it was like to be a district attorney’s assistant, especially as a female. We left school around 12:45, took the F train to Jay St in Brooklyn, and got to Michelle’s office around 1:15. Michelle told us that she works in the Domestic Violence part of the DA’s office, and because she works in that department, she doesn’t experience discrimination because she works in domestic violence. The area in which Michelle works in helps women and men who have been abused by a spouse or someone they are close to, like family or a boyfriend/girlfriend. Michelle told us that domestic violence usually occurs when two people get into an argument and one of them ends up lashing out. Michelle explained to us that most of the time, the man lashes out at the girl and hits her because he wants to make her shut up. When we brought up the fact that 57% of undergraduate degrees are given to women and 60% of masters degrees are given to women but they’re undervalued in the workplace, we asked for her opinions on that statistic. She told us it’s not that women are undervalued, it’s the matter that when women have kids, it becomes harder and it’s a issue that affects women more than men. Women always have to find a balance but it’s harder for a woman to find the balance of kids and work. Balancing this is also weighted towards women more because of history and traditional gender roles that are hard to undo. These gender roles have a certain place for women, and that place is at home, cooking and taking care of kids. All of these things have to do with how women are treated in their jobs and in the workplace, and my group members and I were surprised when we realized the main reason why women were “undervalued” and abused. I think my group will use this to teach people WHY women are “undervalued” and how we should be able to change it. In all, I feel like our interview with Michelle was successful because we learned some key facts and were shown that discrimination of women doesn’t happen everywhere.
