How is sexism in Bakersfield, specifically in the job market?

[FresnoFacts]

Congrats on the job. Employers can be choosy right now given the number of people looking so you must have impressed someone.

[E_Gitz]

Originally Posted by FresnoFacts

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Thanks. We both finally did get jobs. I wasn't able to get a job in my field, but that's okay because I'd rather just be working somewhere that makes me happy.

When I started this thread, I thought it would be a good way to confirm whether or not there was some discrimination going on because I figured that if people saw the headline and felt strongly about the topic I would get lots of opinions. I didn't really seem to get strong opinions about the issue of sexism specifically, other than that people generally disagreed. That pretty much leads me to believe that sexism is not really a problem in Bakersfield. Discrimination is something that motivates people to speak out, and I figured that if sexism was an issue here, there would be a bunch of people jumping on the topic and sharing their stories. Since there wasn't even 1, it's hard to argue that there would be any type of sexism going on that is different or greater than anywhere else.

Also, I think that sometimes people aren't necessarily being sexist so much as they are just jumping to conclusions. For instance, I look like a friendly and inviting person, so someone might think that I would be good at answering phones and typing. Or, many times, people assume that I enjoy being around kids or babies, and that my husband enjoys doing yard work or working on the car. In reality, neither of us enjoys any of those things, but we would probably switch chores so that he got the kids and I got the manual work. I guess people don't really intend to be sexist sometimes, it's just that it's what they are used to seeing.

Thank you for your advice and insight on getting along in Bakersfield. I see what you're saying with the friendly chatting vs. just business talk. We'll make an effort to get used to the friendly chatting and opening up. We, myself in particular, can be a bit guarded and brief with people sometimes b/c in our small town, lots of people would only get information from you so that they had fun things to talk about with other people when they go to the bar.

I'm glad people aren't offended by "Honky Tonk". We just always got a laugh about it back home, but not in a mean way. We're trying to be careful because we want to be ourselves and express our own beliefs, but we come from an area that is very different religiously and politically, so we don't want to say or do something that was okay back home but would seriously offend people here. We'd like to make more friends than enemies.

[E_Gitz]

Originally Posted by FresnoFacts

Congrats on the job. Employers can be choosy right now given the number of people looking so you must have impressed someone.

Thanks!

[LadyKLO]

Nothing wrong with saying Honky Tonk...I'm from Tennessee and there are plenty of songs about HonkyTonk! Congrats on the job!

[SOON2BNSURPRISE]

Cool that you are now part of the working class. Congrats for that.

I can understand the idea that many have preconcieved notions on what a woman or man should be doing with their time, or what kind of job that they should have. My wifes cousin is an Electrical Engineer, a male dominated field. She is a beautifull woman that dresses very stylish (Is that a word?) although also very tastefull. When people meet her for the first time they seem to think she is the receptionist or something like that. Many times people stop by on official business and they need to talk to an Engineer. It seems that she has found it hard for some people to believe that a young beautifull woman can work as an Electrical Engineer designing satelight components. Harder to believe that she graduated #1 in her class for both her BS and her Masters.

I for one work in the healthcare industry for a 2 hospital 9 clinic organization. Nursing is a woman dominated field that happens to have a lot of men entering the field. In the past a guy would have been looked at funny if he told somone he was a nurse. Not so much anymore though.

[TimC2462]

[quote=E_Gitz;13363932]

Originally Posted by TimC2462

OK. You provided a little more info than your original post. As one of the employers in Bakersfield, I often get referrals from the Career Services Center here in Bakersfield.

I would suggest contacting them.


Thank you. We had planned on going there this week, but I had an interview that went quite well, and I ended up getting hired. It's definately not in the field that I went to school for, but times are tough and I'm just glad to be working again.

Congratulations on getting the job. I did some sales calls and visited some of our business customers in our local oil/gas industry this past week. While things are slow right now, they have told me that they seeing signs of business picking back up.

[wburg]

I'm not up on Wisconsin slang, but "honky tonk" generally just refers to a bar that plays country music, and considering Bakersfield's main claim to fame is that it is the home of Western swing, especially country singer Buck Owens, folks around there would probably take it as a compliment.

Many of California's central valley cities seem kind of like small towns because many of them were just that before the big suburban land booms of the past few decades. In the case of Bakersfield, it became a bedroom community for the greater Los Angeles area--the idea that people commute from Bakersfield to work in Los Angeles should give you an idea of why it may be difficult to find jobs in Bakersfield. Similarly, there are people who live in Sacramento or Stockton and commute to the Bay Area. Of course, since the economy took a slide and fuel prices skyrocketed, there are fewer of those "super-commuters."

And yes, in California, 300,000 isn't considered a particularly big city--Sacramento and Fresno are bigger cities than that, nearly the population of Milwaukee, but still considered small-town backwaters by folks in the Bay Area or the Los Angeles/Orange County metropolitan areas. Think of it kind of the way a Chicagoan thinks of Wisconsin in general.

Partially, this is because the valleys were so focused on agriculture and resource extraction, and they were extensively "colonized" during the Depression by "Okies" (probably the closest term to "honky tonk" for California, a badge of honor or fighting words depending on how you use it) escaping the Dust Bowl conditions of the southern Midwest and seeking work. They may prefer BBQ or Tex-Mex to brats and cheese curds, and Budweiser to Pabst, but otherwise their descendants would probably get along fine with the folks you knew in Wisconsin--and maybe why Bakersfield may seem familiar to you, even though it's a much larger city.

Congratulations on finding a job, though!

[FresnoFacts]

The influence of the Dust Bowl migration varied by Central Valley county. It was a much larger influence in Kern County than say in Fresno County or other areas.

As a very rough measure the population of California increased by about 7.5% from 1930 to 1940.

Fresno County increased by about 23% in that Dust Bowl decade and not all of the growth was Okie/Arkie migration. The decade's growth was actually smaller than the 70% growth in Fresno County from 1910 to 1920.

But Kern County's population increased by a much larger 50% in the 1930s (from 1935 to 1940 some estimate there was a 60% population increase). Many historians attribute the large Kern County increase completely to the Okie migration rather than the arrival of other groups.

Kern County and Bakersfield were impacted more by the Okie/Arkie arrival than anywhere in the state. I've seen reports that 50% of the patients in 1937 at the Kern County Hospital (including 45% of births) were listed as being from out of state. Most say Bakersfield/Kern was the largest Okie destination by percentage of population growth.

So yes around Kern County you will see a big influence today ranging from honky-tonks to the choice in beer. The Okie/Arkie migration shaped the culture around Bakersfield and Kern County more than probably anywhere else in California.