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I'm going to guess that the more women that learn to do some of these jobs in the military, the more that will be doing them as civilians. Example: Do you see female truck, plane, car mechanics in the military?
When I was in the military I didnt see any women mechanics in any of the units I was in. I was in the engineers as a general then heavy construction equipment operator so we always had a squad or two of mechanics in every company I was in.
We did have a few as equipment operators but it wasnt common. Whenever I saw women they were in either administration or supply MOS.
Going through college as a computer engineer women were rare in the engineering departments. However they dominated the chemistry department. ALL of the western women programmers I've heard of or met quit it at some point. However I do know of a rare few indian women who program and really can keep up.
Last edited by toobusytoday; 02-22-2013 at 03:34 PM..
Reason: Removed racist comment (Changed girls to women)
Heh. Kind of removed an important part that programmers who don't see things the same way would have a lot to learn from. They would get less abused if they weren't played for feeling guilty that they do it as a hobby instead of a job.
Going through college as a computer engineer women were rare in the engineering departments. However they dominated the chemistry department. ALL of the western women programmers I've heard of or met quit it at some point. However I do know of a rare few indian women who program and really can keep up.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MikeNigh
Heh. Kind of removed an important part that programmers who don't see things the same way would have a lot to learn from. They would get less abused if they weren't played for feeling guilty that they do it as a hobby instead of a job.
Well my husband is training me to be a very efficient and successful contractor. It started out just a fun thing for me to do when I wasn't working at my job and then I quit my job because it was getting in the way of my projects and I enjoyed working at the buildings. Plus one of our companies deals with real estate and I had to learn just about everything dealing with building codes and remodeling so I could run the job sites when we had too many things going on at once and my husband can't be everywhere. It's tough though because men in construction are so into not listening to women, especially a woman who is 32 yrs old and 5'1. There are some jobs I have had to fire men for disrespecting me. They wanted to yell or swear at me about staying in a woman's place when I request they do a job the correct way or instruct them on how to perform a task they clearly had no prior knowledge of. I don't know what it would take to get more women involved though, maybe more hand on expose for kids to peak their interest. The one thing I know for sure is there is plenty of room for women and many of the jobs are actually easier than the horrible jobs many women work.
I landed my first job as a parts "man" back in 1972 on LI, at an automotive dealership. After moving to CA the following year it took a few years before I found another job in the industry, which was heavily unionized.
In those days one had to take a basic math and reading skills test and on the day of the test there were lots of people taking it. Of the 101 who passed our names were simply drawn from the hat as to who was at the top of the list. Guess what - the three women all just happened to wind up the last three names drawn and so we were at the bottom of the list despite having some of the highest scores. Not long after that system was dropped. TG.
In the spring of 1977 I got a call about a job with an international shipping co. They had to hire a woman to meet their federal quota and I got the entry job as an apprentice and it was a two year program to make journeyman. Much to their amazement I could not only walk and chew gum at the same time I actually knew what I was doing and they made me a journeyman after just 6 months. I stayed in that job for 28 years, putting up with incredible and disgusting sexual harrassment in the early years.
Sadly there were very few women who seemed interested in going in to blue collar trades by the early 80's. Some of that may have been the fact that jobs did decrease overall - when I stated in 1977 we had over 140 employees in the shop and when I retired in 2004 we were down to just 39.
Last week I read an article about wages for veterinarians and was shocked to learn that most students come out of vet school with over $120,000 in debt and yet the starting salary today is a meager $45,000 or so, which a little more than half what I earned in my last year working in a blue collar union job. It's a profession that was once dominated by men but now about 85% of all vet school students are women.
I don't know if high school policies have changed in the 4+ decades since I left but in those days girls could not take any kind of shop classes - we were forced to take home ec., music appreciation, etc.
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