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From: cramer@kontron.UUCP (Clayton Cramer)
Newsgroups: net.women,net.politics,net.social
Subject: Re: Discrimination against women and statistics
Message-ID: <275@kontron.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 25-Jun-85 11:43:45 EDT
Article-I.D.: kontron.275
Posted: Tue Jun 25 11:43:45 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 26-Jun-85 07:41:47 EDT
References: <482@ttidcc.UUCP> <8203@ucbvax.ARPA>  <457@unc.UUCP> <815@u1100a.UUCP>
Organization: Kontron Electronics, Irvine, CA
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Xref: watmath net.women:6087 net.politics:9587 net.social:741

> 
> >women more often choose occupations which center around helping other people
> >and cooperating with them (teacher, nurse, secretary, social worker).
> >The direct gratitude from the helpee satisfies some of the woman's social
> >needs.
> >
> >Men more often find themselves in occupations which either isolate them
> >from other people, or pits them in anxiety-provoking competition.
> >Some of these higher paying "men's jobs" are dirty and dangerous as well.
> >
> 
> What a waste my life has been.  My job involves facing irate users
> carrying listings, the risk of dropping a terminal on my foot, and
> the filthy job of running cables under the floor.
> 
> All this time I could have been cleanly and painlessly satisfying
> my need to help others by teaching poor children carrying knives,
> or changing people's bedpans, or counselling beaten families in
> ghettos who are losing their benefits.  But forget being a secretary -
> I would be risking coffee pot burns and pencil stabs.  And there's
> no anxiety-provoking competition because we'd all be following the
> same written rules and not be allowed to think on our own as I'm
> occasionally forced to do on my job.
> 
> Thank you for showing me the light.
> 
> 
> -- 
> 
> 			Scott Orshan
> 			Bell Communications Research
> 			201-981-3064
> 			{ihnp4,allegra,bellcore,pyuxww}!u1100a!sdo

Until quite recently (sometime in the 1970s) most men's jobs in this
country were blue collar jobs involving dirt and risk.  My father used
to work on high steel, and the tales he told of industrial injuries
are pretty stomach turning.  I can see why few women would have gone into
his line of work (although I'm sure the macho bias of my father's 
co-workers would have prevented it anyway).  I suspect that the move 
away from blue collar jobs in America is part of the reason that women
are getting a fairer shake in the workplace.