Re: MentorNet (one woman's response)

[Hugh Haskell <hhaskell@MINDSPRING.COM>]

At 22:07 -0400 10/9/02, Fran Poodry wrote:

> Incidentally, I think we need more men teaching elementary school.  I think
> that it would have a positive influence on society.
In principle, I agree with this, but, quite frankly, I don't know too
many men who would put up with the things a typical elementary school
teacher has to go through. I don't think the women ought to have to
put up with it either, but for whatever reason they seem to be able
to do it better than most men I know.

I think that we ought to reflect for a moment on the law of
unintended consequences as well. I can think of two professions that
once were the exclusive, or nearly exclusive, province of women that
men have moved into in increasing numbers in recent years: nursing
and airline flight attendantry. My informal observation is that the
men have moved into dominant positions in these fields much faster
than they should have simply by virtue of their seniority. I suspect
that this is a product of the fact that the managers who have made
promotion decisions in these fields in the past have mostly been men,
so when there are male candidates for leadership positions, they will
likely be favored over perhaps better qualified women. I don't think
elementary education would necessarily benefit if this happened there.

I'm told that the computer industry, which used to have a large
percentage of women has had a significant fall-off in the number of
women employed in recent years. I'm not sure I know why, if it is
true, nor am I sure that it is relevant to this thread. But it might
be.

Hugh
--

Hugh Haskell
<mailto:haskell@ncssm.edu>
<mailto:hhaskell@mindspring.com>

(919) 467-7610

Let's face it. People use a Mac because they want to, Windows because they
have to..
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This posting is the position of the writer, not that of SUNY-BSC, NAU or the AAPT.