| Title: | ARCHIVE-- Topics of Interest to Women, Volume 1 --ARCHIVE |
| Notice: | V1 is closed. TURRIS::WOMANNOTES-V5 is open. |
| Moderator: | REGENT::BROOMHEAD |
| Created: | Thu Jan 30 1986 |
| Last Modified: | Fri Jun 30 1995 |
| Last Successful Update: | Fri Jun 06 1997 |
| Number of topics: | 873 |
| Total number of notes: | 22329 |
My dictionary's definition of culture is: "Sociol. the sum total of ways of living built up by a group of human beings and transmitted from one generation to another." Using that reasoning, I don't feel that women can have a seperate culture from men unless they are brought up seperately. Both men and women have been brought up in a culture that dictates that this is for men only, and this is for women only. I would prefer to talk about the societal roles that men and women are put in that are so often ingrained in us that you often wonder if it's a characteristic trait of that particular sex. Do you feel that women in general do better in support roles (such as software support) then men? Why is it that when I interviewed college hires for a job that involved supporting a tool, most men indicated that they preferred a development role, and the women felt that they enjoyed supporting tools, and the user interaction that came with it? Are the majority of the support people in your groups women? Do developers get more prestige then people who support tools? I once had a manager that felt that support was unimportant. Is it that attitude in some people which make it more OK for women to have that role? ...Karen
| T.R | Title | User | Personal Name | Date | Lines |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 41.1 | Socially approved roles are a big factor | DAIRY::SHARP | Never change your PERSONAL_NAME | Fri Jul 11 1986 15:44 | 15 |
Some of the best software developers I've known have been women, and some of the best software specialists have been men. But probably in general I'd have to say that women are better in the support roles, and men in the development. Well, we can argue about why but I beleive it's not due to innate differences, but because these are the assigned gender roles, and that's what most people learn. Definitely support is regarded as lower status than development. Documentation is also regarded as lower status than engineering (i.e. software development), and strangely enough (ha ha, it's not funny) you see women much more in documentation as opposed to engineering. Women are under-represented in the technical and management job categories, and over-represented in administrative and support categories. Don. | |||||
| 41.2 | Nurturing is a woman's role. | DAIRY::SHARP | Always change your PERSONAL_NAME | Fri Jul 11 1986 15:47 | 28 |
On the topic of support roles outside the engineering environment: When I need nurturance I always look toward women to fill this need. Even though I love men. For instance, my therapist is a woman, my chiropractor is a woman, my acupuncturist is a woman and if there were enough female MD's to go around I would choose a woman as my physician. When I meet a man who provides a fraction of the nurturance I get routinely from women I think I've found someone really special. Once I had a physician who treated me very well. He didn't condescend to me, he listened attentively when I described my symptoms and he gave me a lot of information about alternatives: alternative procedures, alternative diagnoses etc. He didn't come on like the all knowing authority. After I had been seeing him for a while and he had cured me of a couple of ailments I started to wonder if he was gay. I had absolutely no information about his sexuality, our relationship was strictly professional. But I just assumed that if a man shows care and concern for my well being there must be some other explanation, he certainly didn't pick up this attitude in medical school. When I perform nurturing functions, whether I'm taking care of my neice and nephew, ministering to a sick friend or mentoring a growing engineer I look toward women as models for how to fill this role. I'm often aware as I'm doing it that my father and my brother would do it very differently (if at all). Don. | |||||
| 41.3 | ans to 41.2 | STUBBI::REINKE | Fri Jul 11 1986 17:48 | 7 | |
re 41.2 I think that some of the men who are nurturing individuals are
attracted to medicine (too bad not all male physiciains are nurturing
individuals!!) My doctor (male) is ver much like the one you described
and he is definitely not gay. Isn't it too bad, given that so many
people are very biased against gays and regard calling someone gay
as a perjoritive that people often think that a nurturing man is
gay? I guess we still have a ways to go.
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