On Fri, May 25, 2007 at 10:46:57AM -0400, Karen Thomas wrote:
> >>> i'm wondering if it's maybe a northeast thing
>
> I'd bet it varies not only somewhat geographically, but also over a
> timeline. What I mean by over a timeline is, that as women have become more
> visible in certain sports, many men have left the sports - just a few
*nods* you see this in employment too; as in medicine (which has reached
gender parity at the younger levels, but which is overall in decline,
perhaps due to the hmo-ization of medical care). my mom (an md) used to
really want one of her kids to succeed her in the profession, but now i
think she's just as glad i went the phd/academic route instead.
> Equestrian sports are only one of a
> couple where men and women compete equally under exactly the same set of
> rules at the Olympic level...and women stand up quite well to the
> competition. Apparently a lot of men don't like that.
how bizarre. okay.
> That there are more women than men involved in the USA with horses is pretty
> much a given on a national level though.
*nod* even among little kids, you see it, as i said about my experiences
with horse camp. i don't think it's really inherently a gender thing,
as icelandic men seem to present a large showing from over there. i
guess it's one thing to be happy about in the (i think generally
unfortunate) gender polarization in our society -- *we* get horses :)
> with him (a New Englander) on this subject. He said was ok to go riding on
> a packing type vacation out west, but overall, the horse business is largely
> Jane's baby. Lynn Palm's husband is an equestrian in his own right though,
i think it would be hard to be at jane's level whether you were married
to her or not! my husband rides, enthusiastically even, but i have both
a real head start due to having ridden as a child, and i got my own
horse and pursued my instructorship. (next i want to take centered-riding
certification, so it's not like i'm done! :) i'm wondering how much
this will change when/if he gets his own horse -- i had already started
my instructor apprenticeship, but i was at the barn a lot less before
stjarni....
> I think even vet schools have a larger percentage of female than male
> students now, whereas I never heard of a female vet when I was a kid. Maybe
> Laree knows that, since her daughter just got accepted. Is Annie expecting
> to meet a lot of guys at school...? :)
farriery too perhaps? i had a woman farrier at my last barn (and i may
try to drag her to my new one as well, if the older fellow who's been
doing the horses there for umpteen years screws up the length of
stjarni's feet again :/ )
--vicka (former researcher on gender and learning in physics,
and still a bit stuck on the whole topic :)
