International Women's Day

[muninnhuginn]

[while it still is... just]

Having disliked the idea of lj gifts from the moment they were implemented. [This is my space and I get to choose how I let folk into it. Pretty pictures ain't it. (I am a very difficult person to give gifts to: a failing on my part.)] I wasn't overly interested in Rosie the Riveter, slightly annoyed by the faint aura of cashing in on a worthy cause but really not that bothered.

Soaking in the bath, ruminating on my inability to think of anything profound to say on the subject of International Women's Day, I had a small moment of clarity. Rosie hammered against my skull.

Sure she's an icon, one very much of the USA (which is understandable since lj is US-based, but someone less parochial might be more in the spirit...), but... a tacit supporter of a war, taking up the tools left by men shipped off to the theatre of war, to be sent back to the kitchen sink when she's no longer required when the boys come marching back. Not quite the icon I'd choose: a negative kind of empowerment, that, leaping in when there are no men to do the job rather than motoring along in partnership.

That's not really my problem tho'. It's her age. She's a fifty-odd year old icon. Can't we find anyone newer? I'm not sure I can think of anyone. But Rosie it ain't.

Comments

[alitalf.livejournal.com]

When I was studying electrical engineering, the student union asked theuniversity authorities why so few women had been accepted for engineering courses. On the course I was on, there had been one female applicant, who was accepted. I don't remember in detail now, because this was in the 1970s, but I believe she got one of the better paid jobs when she left.

I have worked with women software engineers, pcb designers, and other related people, over the years. Women were in the minority in these areas, but they did not appear to be in any way discriminated against, nor to have to force their way into the profession. If they could do the job, that was all that anyone seemed to care about. In fact, at one place I did some contracting for there were redundancies, and the two women software people were both kept, because they were accepted to be good at their jobs.

[six-old-cars.livejournal.com]

As someone who works in a VERY male-dominated field (software engineering for cars!) my experience has been the same.