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From: ariels@mako.UUCP (Ariel Shattan)
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: Re: Fear and Loathing in ...
Message-ID: <126@mako.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 18-May-84 12:56:03 EDT
Article-I.D.: mako.126
Posted: Fri May 18 12:56:03 1984
Date-Received: Mon, 21-May-84 05:10:47 EDT
References: <1851@mit-vax.UUCP> <2551@watcgl.UUCP>, <1119@ihuxl.UUCP>, <857@druca.UUCP> <124@mako.UUCP>
Organization: Tektronix, Wilsonville OR
Lines: 57


Tim S. says:

>Why do so many women continually pursue vocations/careers that are known
>in advance to not pay well?  Perhaps their energy would be better spent
>pursuing better-paying jobs than trying to raise the salaries of jobs that
>they trained for and accepted knowing full well that it would not pay as
>well as some other job.


When you are told from infancy onward that you are not good in math and
science, and that the best thing you can aspire to is to help
people, you feel later that you are unprepared for the "better"
jobs.  Also, until just recently (the last 10 years or so), even
women who managed to struggle against the education system and
become prepared for engineering and management positions were not
hired, because they were women.

The "pink collar ghettos" are filled with women because:

a) Up until very recently those were the only jobs women could get.

b) Men have been/are trained since childhood that they can aspire to
   much higher goals ("any boy can grow up to be President.  Look at
   Abe Lincoln"), and therefore don't even consider (until recently)
   the service positions.

People stay in low-pay positions because:

a) They can't afford the training it takes to advance.

b) They like their work, even if they don't like the pay.

c) They are not given the opportunity to advance, even though others
   in the same position have been because of some arbitrary
   criterion.

d) They need the job to live on, and they're raising a family alone,
   so they haven't any extra time, energy, or money for dreams.

I personally feel that many of the the pink collar ghetto jobs
should pay a whole lot more.  No company of any size on this planet 
can run without secretaries.  No hospital or clinic can run without
nurses.  And raising and teaching children has got to be the
absolute most important job around; it's where the future of the
species lies.  However, NONE of these positions pay as much as a
welder, or even as a GARBAGE COLLECTOR!  It's a crying shame that
this society doesn't consider children as important as garbage.

Besides which, when the only job opportunity you have is in the pink
collar ghetto, you take it.  The rent must be payed and the body
fed.  Many of us are very lucky to never have had to worry about these
issues.  But most of the world works to live.  The luxury of
choosing a "satisfying" job belongs only to a fortunate few.

Ariel (there but for the grace of [pick a deity]...) Shattan
..!tektronix!mako!ariels