Please read Part 1 and Part 2 in my previous two blog posts where I explained Rules 1 through 4.  Many women in Dickinson already know these rules, however many do not.

5.  Do Not Fight In Public.  I mean do not engage in a physical fight in public.  In a stressful situation, if you can not stand there with your arms crossed, then you need to leave.  If you are being put under too much stress, you should probably leave anyway.  You do not have to stand there and let someone insult you, curse at you, or threaten you, ..leave.  You should always try to avoid situations where people will mistreat you, however if you find yourself in a situation where you are being mistreated, …leave.  I will give some examples below.

If your boyfriend is being disrespectful or insulting, …leave.

If your husband is being abusive, disrespectful, or insulting, …leave.

If a co-worker is being abusive or threatening, you should probably leave.

If an employer is being abusive or threatening, you should leave.

In the examples that I gave above, you need to let people know that you will not tolerate mistreatment or abuse, and though they may be using bad language, vulgarity, and making threats, you aren’t going to behave like that.  In your personal relationships, you can disassociate yourself from anyone that is disrespectful and abusive, but you should also do this in your professional life, and I will explain why

If an employer ever tries to mistreat you, they will likely never stop.  The first time that an employer does something abusive, understand that this is what they are like, and that this will continue.  There are laws now about “hostile work environment”, but you should just leave first, and not come back.

You might be thinking, “This is easy for you to say, but how am I going to pay my bills?”  When you are a young single woman, you can’t spend all the money that you make.  It is very, very important that you save money, and have quite a bit of money saved up.  You need to not get the most expensive apartment, most expensive furniture, most expensive car, and most expensive clothes that you can buy.  You need to save money and have money saved up so that you will not be at the mercy of other people, or dependent on other people, and can just leave any abusive, threatening, or coercive situation.

Again, a lady should not engage in a physical fight.  But this does not mean that you have to do nothing when people are threatening and abusive to you.  In some cases, it may be appropriate to have a boyfriend, husband, or father inform someone that they had better not mistreat you.  In some cases you may have to explain yourself to an administrator or a manager in order to report and stop abuse.  In some cases you may need a lawyer.  In some cases you may be better off to just never deal with some people again.