Hello everyone,
Evelyn here.
While viewing the site of a new found friend, I discovered this link to an interesting article on women who work and/or compete for what traditionally has been thought of as male orientated jobs. The article goes into some familiar stereotyping of women positions in the America's workforce and some of the discrimination tactics women have faced and are stilling facing when applying for traditional male orientated positions.
The article makes it clear that this is not a isolated phenomenon but one that can be traced from one end of continental America to the other. The article target jobs of firefighters and police officers as the largest offenders against female applicants, and how women are either excluded from the hiring process or made to go through strenuous physical testing above that which is normally required of a male applicant.
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The Skinny Pink Paycheck Syndrome
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By E.J. Graff and Evelyn Murphy
EVELYN MURPHY, the former lieutenant governor of Massachusetts, is founding director of the WAGE Project. E.J. GRAFF is senior researcher at the Brandeis Institute for Investigative Journalism and mo
February 12 2006
THE NEW YORK TIMES recently profiled San Diego's Fire Engine Company 22, almost certainly the only all female firefighting crew in the United States. It was inspiring to read about four competent, hardworking women happily succeeding in a "man's job."
The complete article can be viewed at:
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-op-graff12feb12,0,6636706.story?coll=la-news-comment-opinions
Also, see "Gender Barriers Impede Progress of Women Firefighters"
By David Crary, The Associated Press on the Truthout website at http://www.truthout.org/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi/35/11533
I consider these articles high on my "must read" list.
Evelyn out.
