Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site gatech.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!harpo!floyd!clyde!akgua!emory!gatech!amyl From: amyl@gatech.UUCP Newsgroups: net.women Subject: Re: Discrimination in the USAF Message-ID: <1970@gatech.UUCP> Date: Tue, 8-Nov-83 12:16:41 EST Article-I.D.: gatech.1970 Posted: Tue Nov 8 12:16:41 1983 Date-Received: Wed, 9-Nov-83 23:18:55 EST Organization: Georgia Tech School of ICS, Atlanta Lines: 26 It seems to me that the USAF's failure to use women in underground launch substations is simply a rationalization for not wanting to take the trouble to train some women for the job. To say that people working down there would be made uncomfortable if they had to work with women might be true-- at the outset. Anything new is usually difficult at first. But human beings are nothing if not adaptable. I strongly doubt that the people in those substations would NOT learn to work together, since their work would be more important than the fact that their (learned?) anxieties were a bit stimulated. Working closely with someone of the opposite sex is nothing new. We learn appropriate behavior as needed. If I were an Air Force wife and the Air Force said they would not use women in the launch substations out of consideration for my feelings, I would be just a mite peeved that they would think me so petty. I don't really believe that women will be kept out of any domain of public life as long as they insist on being there, underground launch substations included. -- Amy Lapwing School of ICS, Georgia Tech, Atlanta GA CSNet: Amyl @ GATech ARPA: Amyl.GATech @ UDel-Relay uucp: ...!{akgua,allegra,rlgvax,sb1,unmvax,ut-ngp,ut-sally}!gatech!amyl