The Culture Crisis in America #culturecrisis #identitycrisis #cultureDNA

I am pretty much feeling crappy this week and, when I’m not working, I’m replaying the election in my head by listening or reading too much bad news. And then I spiral into a bout of anger, then ready to rally, then tearful again.

I think my husband gets it, but then he wonders why I can’t move on. So let me tell you why I’m guessing my husband doesn’t understand my glumness, even though we share the same values and voted the same, and why some of my male friends struggle to empathize who were not for Hillary.

I represent a slice of the female GenX demographic who has been a middle-income professional, most times the higher income earner and breadwinner.

My challenge in the corporate world has been acknowledging my identity as a woman, and learning to navigate (and adapt to) a mostly male dominated, male-designed corporate culture. A culture where women are not always looking after one another, because there is fierce competition to be recognized, promoted and compensated.

I want women to work better with other women, and I want men to overcome some of their unconscious bias about women in the workplace. My big audacious goal is to redesign corporate culture where we can integrate the cultural identities of women and men, so I get annoyed when we get in our own way.

And this election was the perfect case study of getting in our own way.  Over 40% of the female voters VOTED FOR the white-male cultural identity that Trump portrayed, and VOTED AGAINST the equally powerful female cultural identity that Hillary portrayed.  Approximately 53%  of the Trump voters were white women, according to CNN. And what’s more, according to Slate.com, some of these women were cited as saying they were flattered by Trump’s misogynistic comments like, being groped. As if we live for that kind of disgusting uninvited attention. On behalf of all of our young daughters in the world, I’m about ready to vomit.

And this, dear husband, is why I cry in the shower and feel so glum. Not because Trump, a man, beat Hillary, a woman, which on the surface was super annoying, but because I thought we were making progress as a country that valued people more, despite gender and race. And as a woman, I thought that we were progressing (albeit slowly) as professionals, moms, educators, healthcare providers…as equals in the eyes of women at a minimum. Until I watched the map turn red on election night, and felt absolute despair by 11:23 pm PST when Trump was announced.