On Not Being Heard

So this class also made me think of how it can be truly difficult to make your voice be heard. I have to say that I have been fortunate enough to always have a place to express myself in my life and be heard amongst my pears. But you know, disrespectful people will often do their very best to not hear what you have to say. Yesterday, I had a disagreement with my boss and instead of keeping his cool and deal with it in an adult manner, he decided to instead yell at me and call me 'girly.' When I pointed out that I have a name and that 'girly' is probably not the way to address your employee he threatened to fire me if I continued with what he called 'my disrespectful attitude.'  I kept telling him that he was the one who was disrespectful in the way he was talking to me in front of clients. When I told him I wanted to call my union rep because of his threats, he refused, going so far as to unplug the work phone and blocking my way to it. He continued to yell at me when I told him I was within my rights to want to call the union. I ended up not being fired, I believe he realised that he was in violation of my rights. I was terrified, however.
Now, I realise that this is not an extremely grave case, but it is part of the problem. As I am sure everyone here knows, it is excruciating not to be heard when you want to scream. Being heard and listen to is a right that everyone should have. Making it so someone cannot be heard is truly disrespectful, it chips away at a basic right everyone should have. 
Anyway, I felt that this story was relevant not only because it affected me in a powerful way, but also because being herd is, I feel, the whole point of this class and my altercation reminded me that instances such as this one happen every day to people who are not as fortunate as I am to have way to defend themselves.