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From: robinson@ubc-cs.UUCP (Jim Robinson)
Newsgroups: can.politics
Subject: Re: Re: egg/chicken chicken/egg chigg/eckin
Message-ID: <1164@ubc-cs.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 15-Jul-85 02:13:48 EDT
Article-I.D.: ubc-cs.1164
Posted: Mon Jul 15 02:13:48 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 15-Jul-85 07:01:25 EDT
References: <893@mnetor.UUCP> <5642@utzoo.UUCP> <896@mnetor.UUCP> <2178@watcgl.UUCP>
Reply-To: robinson@ubc-cs.UUCP (Jim Robinson)
Organization: UBC Department of Computer Science, Vancouver, B.C., Canada
Lines: 50
Summary: 

In article <2178@watcgl.UUCP> jchapman@watcgl.UUCP (john chapman) writes:
> But by the reasoning you provided in the rest of your article
> below (actually I think I hit DD a couple of times too many, sorry)
> they don't.  As you have said friends/family etc. will provide a lot of
> counter pressure to females who wish to make non traditional choices.  Thus
> while they may theoretically have the same choices, practically they
> dont't.

I am yet to hear of a viable means of changing Aunt Betsy's mind 
concerning the role of women. [It's interesting to note that we're
now getting into religious freedom, since several religions do
indeed consider the woman's place to be in the home. I imagine they would
consider any government action designed to promote otherwise to be an
infringement of that freedom.]

> What about when Uncle George is ther personnel manager or owner of
> a firm?  Then those cultural biases affect a lot more than relatives
> and friends.

True. There should be a means by which our fictitious Linda could
charge dear old Uncle George with  refusing to hire her because of
her sex. Also, if found guilty he should receive more than the
proverbial slap on the wrist. Alternatively, some kind of AA program
could be introduced.

> Well you didn't take my last suggestion for an experiment I guess
> but heres a *very* simple one.  I don't think you would argue that
> clerical occupations are quite low paid.  Go into your local high
> school and ask them how many are taking the office skills types
> of courses (i.e. courses/program to teach people how to be good
> clerks, secretaries etc).  Now find out how many are male.  Not
> too many I bet.  I also doubt that the young women taking these
> courses are doing so because of any biological prediliction to
> typing.

Nothing personal but I didn't consider the earlier suggested experiment
to be too terribly relevant. 

As for the latest one: I agree with you 110%. Our school system is, in
this respect, letting us down (my impression). As far as I know they 
are *not* going out of their way to encourage females to enter 
non-traditional areas. This would seem to me to be one of the best places
to attack the problem. Such an approach makes sense because,
to a large extent, it is attacking the *cause* of the problem (cultural 
biases) and not the *symptom* (low wages). Of course there may be 
problems with parents who believe that the gov't, via the school system,
is interfering with their right to raise their children as they see fit,
but then again nuthin's perfect now is it.

Jim Robinson