“Women have been working for a long time (since the beginning of time) and still there is
a lot of buzz in the US media in the last year about women in the workplace for number
of reasons: women are paid less on the dollar than men and are consistently sexually
harassed and assaulted by men in positions of power. Our work is undervalued and
underpaid, and yet our labor contributes 7.6 trillion dollars to the nation’s GDP each year.
In light of Ivanka Trump’s self-help book from last year titled “Women Who Work”,
which does nothing more than to push the Trump brand into the world of faux feminism,
I decided to drive around rural Western North Carolina to ask women In their early 20s what
it is that young American women really do every day and what it is that they would like to
be doing in the future to learn more about what other young women like me have goals
and dreams of doing in the area that we must all find our place: work. “

Name: Molly
Age: 20
Lives In: Mars Hill, NC
Works at: Subway
“I want to be a labor and delivery nurse. I am into free-birthing and
I’m going back to school soon to be a CNA. This is just temporary until
I can figure out how to get back in school.”

Name: Elizabeth
Age: 25
Lives In: Mars Hill, NC
Works at: Town & Country Hair Fashions
“I originally wanted to be a paramedic, but I started college and it just wasn’t for me.
Then I decided to try doing hair, and it’s exactly what I want to be doing.
This is honestly my dream job.”

Name: Ashley
Age: 27
Lives in: Alexander, NC
Works at: Blue Ridge Overstock
“My husband and I started this shop together a couple of years ago.
It really is my dream job to be a small business owner. I am also a nurse, but this
comes more naturally to me and makes me feel independent.”

Name: Amber
Age: 23
Lives in: Barnardsville, NC
Works at: D+D Restaurant
“My dream job is to be a school guidance counselor at a middle school.
I love kids that age and I feel like I could make a bigger impact that way than being a
teacher. This restaurant is a pretty good job but I just don’t want to be doing it forever.”

Name: Morgan
Age: 21
Lives in: Old Fort, NC
Works at: Frisbee’s Grocery
“I want to be a teacher, no doubt.
I think I want to be a head-start early childhood teacher.”

Name: Alexis
Age: 20
Lives in: Marion, NC
Works at: Marion Bargain Mart
“I am so bored at this job, but I can use my phone whenever I want.
I really want to be a history teacher.
Well, either that or I’m going to go to South Carolina to get a Marine Biology degree.”

Meet Forest Wallingford here and here!