Good Folks, I've been reading these missives, while observing my younger daughter who just turned 1. I watch her play with a truck and then cuddle her doll. I don't know where she learned to do either, but it probably comes from external and internal influences. Now on the other hand, her mother is a CPA and runs an accounting dept in a large hospital. A lot of males (from Goldman Sachs to the CFO and other bigs) absolutley depend upon her analytical prowess to keep the hospital solvent (no small feat in these days of madness). In fact, my wife got into hospital accounting because at the time (early 1980s) it wasn't considered "glamorous" (by accountants, of all people!). The point is that when the guys screwed up the audits they had to "call in the women" to get the job done right. In fact, it was quite evident that the hospital practice at this particular Big 6 succeeded because the women supplanted the incompetent males! (Maggie will concur on this for NYNEX). My wife never expects to be treated differently, however, she also knows that sexisim is a fact of the workplace. Fortunately, the people above her (males) recognize her talents and try to let her do her job - a situation that most women don't have. Success is contingent upon a ton of factors (including hormones and sexism, etc), however, as Steve Gould points out, human's have an incredible capacity to adapt. Basically, in the workplace,it comes down to letting people do their job, and hopefully, recognizingthat everybody's got peeves and prejudices. The key thing is to recognize that "none are without sin" and to learn to keep your attitudes in check, if you can't change 'em. Jason
