Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site ulysses.UUCP
Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!harpo!eagle!mhuxl!ulysses!smb
From: smb@ulysses.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: Re: Discrimination in the USAF
Message-ID: <691@ulysses.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 9-Nov-83 17:58:42 EST
Article-I.D.: ulysses.691
Posted: Wed Nov  9 17:58:42 1983
Date-Received: Fri, 11-Nov-83 02:12:43 EST
References: <1970@gatech.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill
Lines: 32

The line handed out by that Air Force officer strikes me as pure poppycock.
I've heard some similar reasons advanced for why women can't be firefighters
("it gets the wives upset because you're in the same room with their
husbands for days"), or for why women can't be astronauts ("there's not
much privacy in a space capsule (snicker giggle leer)").  Well, I've got
news for such folks:  some women do just fine as astronauts, fire fighters,
truck drivers, construction workers, and all the other non-traditional roles.

Granted, some women aren't strong enough to handle a fire hose, or to carry
a person out of a burning building -- but neither are some men.  And some
women don't have the psychological "features" that let them blow up millions
of their fellow human beings.  I don't, either.  If you need particular
traits, select for them, not for Y chromosomes.  (Aside to those who think
that some traits are genetically linked to Y chromosomes:  you may be right,
the evidence is at best inconclusive and contradictory.  But the person-to-
person variation is enough greater than the difference of the means that
a sex-based selection mechanism is ridiculous.)

Finally, what about questions of privacy and "husband-stealing"?  To some
extent, those are symptoms of older attitudes.  After all, why don't
women in any workforce "steal" other men?  Maybe an all-night hacking
session will make a woman programmer want to tear the clothes off of a male
companion?  And maybe companies can save money on buildings by installing
only men's rooms?  You see my point, I trust.  Many years ago, I worked in
a small building where the men's rooms and the women's room's were on
alternate floors.  When the university took over the building, the systems
folks didn't put with that nonsense.  Given that the bathrooms were only
large enough for one person at a time anyway, we solved the "problem" quite
simply by putting a rotatable sign on the door that said ENQUEUE and DEQUEUE.
No problem...

		--Steve Bellovin