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From: pc@hplabsb.UUCP (Patricia Collins)
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: Re: Fear and Loathing in ...
Message-ID: <2297@hplabsb.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 6-Jun-84 01:19:57 EDT
Article-I.D.: hplabsb.2297
Posted: Wed Jun  6 01:19:57 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 2-Jun-84 11:38:46 EDT
References: <1851@mit-vax.UUCP> <2551@watcgl.UUCP>, <1119@ihuxl.UUCP>, <857@druca.UUCP>, <124@mako.UUCP>
Organization: Hewlett Packard Labs, Palo Alto CA
Lines: 41


	Why do women continue to pursue low paying jobs, you ask?

	Young children are very susceptible to programming.  MOST children's
books still show women as nurses and men as doctors, women as secretaries
and men as managers, women as teachers and men as professors, women as
housekeepers and men as peacekeepers (law officers), women as homemakers
and men as decision makers.  And as long as "reality" is that low-paying
jobs are dominated by women and ethnic minorities, the image is reinforced.
It takes pretty powerful counterprogramming to change those strong
stereotypes.

	Now, just when a parent/teacher/mentor thinks s/he is making
progress in helping the child see that career choices are not limited
by sex, the child enters puberty.  Sexual awareness balloons.  The 
desire to be accepted by one's peers is overwhelming.  Very few teens
have the self-confidence and self-awareness to resist the social tide
without feeling isolated and rejected.  This is the same period of time
when decisions about further education, career paths, and life goals
are planned.  And let's face it, being socially "maladjusted" is a BIG
handicap for anyone.  

	So, the teenage girl is expected to be more mature.  If she is
unsure of herself, she can hide behind a traditional path and prepare
to become a nurse, homemaker, secretary, or teacher.  Perversely, our 
society says it is OK for boys to be immature and socially unaware at 16,
but girls are supposed to be (and generally are) very sensitive about 
their social interactions.  I suspect boys are traumatized by their teen 
years too, but adult expectations of boys is generally lower in the area 
of social awareness and maturity.  So, the boys are not hit with the 
double-whammy of failing themselves AND failing their parents/mentors 
expectations if the are unsure of their aspirations.  AND if the teenage 
boy feels inadequate to the task of deciding his own future, he can just 
follow the societal prescription and prepare to become a doctor, decision 
maker, manager, union laborer.

	I hope this brief analysis gives you some insight into the
question you posed.

						Patricia Collins
						hplabs