Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!mailrus!ames!pasteur!agate!cook@alliant.Alliant.COM
From: cook@alliant.Alliant.COM (Dale C. Cook)
Newsgroups: comp.society.women
Subject: Re: Working at Home
Message-ID: <11232@agate.BERKELEY.EDU>
Date: 21 Jun 88 13:43:36 GMT
Sender: usenet@agate.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: Alliant Computer Systems, Littleton, MA
Lines: 36
Approved: skyler@violet.berkeley.edu (Moderator -- Trish Roberts)
Comments-to: comp-women-request@cs.purdue.edu
Submissions-to: comp-women@cs.purdue.edu

In article <11144@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> you write:
>It was supposed, when computing firms starting expanding wildly,
>that computing would be a great field for women.  Ideally, one
>did not have to be in the same building as other people to be in
>the same firm and working on the same project.  This was supposed
>to mean that women could work at home.  It was supposed to mean
>that computing would be a particularly inviting field for women.
>This doesn't seem to have happened.  Has it?  If not, why not?
>
>-Trish
>
Actually it has here at Alliant.  Our chief board layout person is
about to go on maternity leave and the company has purchased a
Cadnetix system for her to use at home.  It is common practice 
for both men and women to handle child-raising responsibilities
by dialing in from home.

All of my examples are in the nature of temporary arrangements rather
than full time operation from home.  My guess (and that's all it is)
would be that part of the reason for working at all (aside from the
obvious one :-) is to get out of the house and into the society of
work.  We are a compnay of few meetings where everyone is still
technical, so there is no real reason why a person couldn't do most
things at home.  But even those with long commutes seem to prefer to
come in.  We must be doing something right in the work environment
satisfaction department!

Now a question: has anyone else noticed a gender related difference
in frequency/ability to use e-mail?  My experience is that men seem
to have little difficulty switching from face-to-face or telephone
interaction to the electronic medium, but women do.

-- 
	- Dale      N1US		VOICE: (617) 486-1343
ARPA:	cook@alliant.alliant.com	SMAIL: 1 Monarch Drive
UUCP:	...linus!alliant!cook			Littleton, MA 01460