Just a personal observation on my 30 year career. When I started
as a lab tecnician with two years of college men were promoted
through "experience" to the title of chemist without a four year
degree. After I put in my years as a technician, developed
patentable formulations etc., they said, "we don't do that
anymore."
When men left the lab to take the managment track, they went to
sales. I can still remember the sales manager saying to me, "If
we ever hired a woman for sales, you would be great!, but we are
not going to do that in my lifetime." There weren't too many
women chemists in 1972.
So I went back to college and completed that chemistry degree.
Two babies a marriage, divorce, five universities and 17 years,
but I got it.
Now at the State Department of Environmental Protection, I hear,
"You have to be an engineer to get the managment positions."
<sigh> There aren't too many women engineers in 1995 - and I don't
see how being an engineer qualifies anyone to manage or interpret
rules and regulations concerning pollution beter than a chemist.
It seems like challenging these differences is something that is
in-my-face a lot. In the fifties, P.S.# 6 in Yonkers, New York
had a boys entrance and a girls entrance. It changed the year
after I left. In the sixites, Albany State University had curfews
for women and none for men. That changed after I left. Do I
look like a battering ram to you?
thanks for the space to share
