Sexism, racism, age discrimination…
How have any Dopers succeeded in defeating, at least in their little corner of the world, such attitudes?
I have a cousin who recently retired after a long career with the Indianapolis Police Department, reaching the rank of lieutenant–no easy task for a woman.
And a girl I went to high school with became a senior nurse in a California hospital, where she had enough chutzpah and courage to blast the physicians (mostly male, of course) for their attitudes toward the nursxing staff.
So post your examples of how you, or a friend or relative, have successfully fought these “isms.”
Sorry, but my example is not much help. They said I would never return to work when I got pregnant, and when it turned out I was expecting twins, I decided they were right.
Maybe when they go to school full days in 1-2 years (knock on wood).
I found this in another thread: "Today’s crooks " by beatle
He has the link. here’s an excerpt
Oct 7, 2000 - 03:58 PM
Blind Lookout Man Held in Robbery Attempt
PAWTUCKET, R.I. (AP) - A legally blind man who police say acted as a lookout for his brother was arrested along with his sibling after the two allegedly tried to rob an apartment.
A building resident who saw the two leaving the apartment became suspicious and called 911, then waited in front of the building for police to arrive.
Eugene Allen, 29, who can only see shadows, mistook the resident for his brother and was standing next to him when the officers drove up.
…(there’s more at the link)
by leaving & getting a better job. When they go bust because all the good staff have left, I shall enjoy a quiet glass of champagne (paid for by my new better salary… nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah! - oh, I’m gonna pay for some maturity too, but later, I want to enjoy it!)
Seriously - at this job, when one of our two female managers left (out of app 10 mgrs at same level & no females on the board), one of the other managers who did her leaving speech said that she had broken through the glass ceiling for females at this company. I looked round the room. It had about 30-40 people in it. Five were female. Four were admin/secretary/temps. The one who wasn’t was her - & she was leaving for a better job. Yeah, so broken through it. Nice one. He didn’t realise & he’s a nice chap. D’oh!
About 10 years ago, I was working for the NYC Board Of Education as part of their computer technology dept. There was an opening for a repair tech, and I had a female friend who had recently graduated tech school. I knew her as a very good worker, and sharp with computers, from past experience with her. I spoke with the people in charge of hiring, but they felt that a woman wouldn’t be able to handle going into some of the rougher school neighborhoods.
My friend wanted the job, and I lobbied successfully to finally get her hired. She did quite well, and as a result they were more open to hiring future female techs.
I’ve made a living as a photographer of blues musicians. This is pretty much a male province, and a rather late night rough one past the festival circuit. When I started 12 years ago, I was one of two gals in the regular choir. Plus, I’m small in body. That’s a drag when you’re trying to work among bigger folks. I never let those things deter me. I just got in there with the others and did my job.
In some cases, being femme had a payback. Once, when faced with a long line of photographers at his dressing room, Bo Diddly said,“Only that Gal can come in.” I expect he was tired, and figured I’d be the least trouble. Yeah yeah, but he was a total gentleman, and really was tired of the constant barrage of male journalistic tactics. He knew a lady wouldn’t accost him in a tiresome way.
I consider that payback for all the times I’ve had to deal with the egotistical male province in which I work. There’s so much testosterone flowing there, and , beyond that, so much sociological weirdness in white folks documenting African-American culture, that it’s almost a blessing to be the anomaly and float just under the radar.
I’ve never let my endocrine or pigmentation issues stand in the way of what I’d like to do in this world. Still wouldn’t mind six more inches to make it easier to fend off the yahoos though.
Tangentially related, but my mother went on leave from teaching 2 months before I was born (I think. I just remember it was earlier than normal because I was 6 weeks early) and she still hasn’t gone back 16 years later… 
Well, you may or may not think this fits, but I represented a guy with a sexual harrassment grievance against his female boss. She was doing straight out quid pro quo–go out with me and I’ll get you a job upgrade, flirt with me and I’ll look the other way when you come in late, let me lean up against your hard body and the sky’s the limit–this woman was slimey!! And I loved it, from a woman’s liberation angle–because she felt secure enough in her power to be an oppressor, to let her normal nature out, she wasn’t on eggshells or trying to represent all women. She had power, she abused it, and she thought she was above the rules. Now that’s an equal woman. I want more righteous sexual harassment suits (not revenge or frivolous, but real, egregious cases) against women–that will convince me that the glass ceiling is gone. Then we can figure out how to just respect each other in the workplace.
So acting arrogant and abusive is equal…
I think Nietzsche said something like that once…
It’s all well and good as long as we don’t all become Kilkenny Cats first. 
Well, I’m the only female taxidermist I know of in Boston.
Is that a traditionally male territory?
Hmm, a category even more limited than “black country and western singer” (Charlie Pride).
My church, ELCA, is working on the whole state synod being completely accpeting of gays and lesbians. This will be an uphill battle at times because someone made an amendment to include the Exodus group, a bunch fundies who use intimidation to brainwash people into straightness. We had a meeting last night with some speakers from PFLAG (parents, family & friends of lesbians and gays) and a few gay members of our own congregation. PFLAG has a program called safe space to help make schools safe and hospitible to gay students. This is close to me because of the troubl my own brother had when coming out in high school. My family attended a southern baptist church at the time, you do the math.
My dad was a huge racist, for a very long time. I’m not. The town I used to live in didn’t have a lot of black people. Only one in school the entire time I was there, grades K-7. So you can imagine my dad’s surprise the day two young, black men came knocking on our front door for one of my brothers. (A 16 year old and a 22 year old. They’re brothers.)
Anyway, my dad isn’t the type of racist that would run outside, guns blazing or anything. Mostly he just bitched about them (the brothers) after they left. A few weeks later, the same two guys came back, this time asking for me. The shit did certainly hit the fan that day. Long story short, I blew off my dad and became good friends with the two guys anyway.
Move ahead a few months. I fought a lot with my dad in that time. Screaming matches like you wouldn’t believe that always ended with me storming out of the house. I decided I didn’t want to live like that anymore so I just sat him down and had a long talk with him. He didn’t say much and, when it was over, I didn’t know if we had come to any kind of understanding.
Two days later I was down at the city park with the two guys and a few other people when I saw my dad driving through the parking lot. I ran up to the car before he got to us because I didn’t want anyone to hear his racist bullshit. He parked the car, got out, looked at me, and smiled. He walked over to the group, extended his hand, and introduced himself to the two guys. I felt great! After that, all was well. The guys would come to my house to visit with my brother and me but would often wind up in conversation with my dad. That was four years ago. (Wow, time flys!)