Posted on 09/02/2002 9:44:32 AM PDT by Jagdgewehr
One American construction worker dies every workday hour.
For the past 40 years Labor Day has emphasized the celebration of a crucial change in the labor force – the addition of women. The first Labor Day after Sept. 11, though, reminds us that one aspect of the labor force has experienced no more change than the "Glass Ceiling." That might be called the "Glass Cellar."
When I did the research for a book called "The Myth of Male Power," I discovered a Glass Cellar that holds far more men than the Glass Ceiling. The Glass Cellar consists of the hazardous jobs and the worst jobs (minimum security, low pay, bad conditions).
The hazardous jobs – or "death professions" – result in 93 percent of the people who are killed at work being men. Of the 25 professions that the Jobs Rated Almanac rates as the worst professions, 24 have in common the fact that they constitute 85 percent or more males (welders, roofers, etc.).
The Glass Cellar allows us to predict that virtually 100 percent of the firefighters and police officers who gave their lives at the World Trade Center would be men; that 100 percent of the recently trapped coal miners were men; that in the Gulf War, though men outnumbered women by 9 to 1, they were killed at a ratio of 27 to 1. Virtually no large office building or bridge is built without a man dying in its construction, whether as a lumberjack, trucker, welder, roofer or construction worker.
To this day, the more a profession is a "death profession", the more it is comprised of men. This is not because women cannot do the job. Most women can drive a cab or a truck, but few apply. Driving a cab is slightly safer for a woman than a man, but still, few apply.
If affirmative action required women to share equally in the Glass Cellars, what would the impact be? If no home could be built that did not have 50 percent women participating not only in its direct construction (roofers, welders), but in its indirect construction (lumberjacks, coal or metal miners, truckers), imagine what it would cost to get 50 percent of the people who are building our new homes to be women.
The near-impossibility would lead to a short supply of housing. The cost of housing would soar. We would have to pay these professionals at first twice, then three or four times their current pay, until we attracted 50 percent female lumberjacks, truckers, roofers, etc. We could expect to pay at least twice as much for a new home.
Why are men willing to die so cheaply? The psychology that perpetuates this Glass Cellar includes calling our firefighters and police officers "heroes." "Heroes" comes from the Greek word serow, from which we get our words "servant" and "slave."
We think of a hero as someone who has power. In fact, a servant and slave possess the psychology of disposability, not the psychology of power. Many men have learned to define power as "feeling obligated to earn money that someone else spends while he dies sooner." Real power is best defined as "control over our own lives."
Why do we praise men as heroes when they compete to be disposable? Virtually all societies that have survived have done so by socializing men to be disposable.
The question to probe on Labor Day is whether the incentives and laws that produce male labor are producing the men most capable of loving. Often not. To be successful in war, or as a CEO, it helps to repress feelings, not to express feelings. But to be successful in love, it helps to express feelings, not repress feelings. To be successful as a dad, it helps to be with children, but the "Father's Catch-22" has been to receive the love of his family by being away from the love of his family (whether at work or at war).
The more a man values himself the less he wants to die. To teach a man to value himself by dying – to give him promotions to risk death, to tell him he's powerful, he's a hero, he's loved, he's a "real man" – is to "bribe" a man to value himself more by valuing himself less.
It was part of our genetic heritage to socialize both sexes for disposability. Although women have complained they are not part of the Glass Ceiling, maybe it is because they possess a deeper wisdom – that working the 90 hours a week it takes to break through the Glass Ceiling looks too much like falling into the Glass Cellar.
Women have questioned their genetic heritage; men have not questioned theirs. The result is that women are still falling in love with a sex that is less well socialized to love. Is that good for our children's genetic future?
Main Entry: 1slaveDon't see no Greek there.
Pronunciation: 'slAv
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English sclave, from Old French or Medieval Latin; Old French esclave, from Medieval Latin sclavus, from Sclavus Slavic; from the frequent enslavement of Slavs in central Europe
Date: 14th century
I don't see the NOW crones shrieking to be admitted to THOSE jobs ...
Quite possibly an unfounded leap made by the author (among many). The word "hero" is Greek and attributed to "champions" or men of great strength, courage, or abilities. These heros were supposedly favored by the Greek gods and descended from them, i.e. half god, half man.
The author of this article believes that women "possess a deeper wisdom," and stay away from occupations that have elements of risk to them.
I think this is due more to traditional gender roles, economics, and physical requirements demanded by certain occupations than "wisdom."
Fundamentally, I do not see a change in male/female roles in society. That is fundamentally. I do see many influences and forces in society trying to blur the lines. However, I see that over time certain bedrock distinctions persist.
They deny 30 million years of biology at their own risk.
I too tire of this mindset that the only qualification a woman needs is that fact that she is a woman. It is as if women possess no physical or cognitive limitations, only the limitations suffered under a patriarchal system.
Let's see now. If a F.N.R. is wont to speak up on behalf of liberal policies, I'd think that a pretty good clue that the F.N.R. may be a liberal herself.
Lorianne...Would you say that Spunky Couric is a liberal...or just nifty?
LOL, jla. As for reading news readers' minds, what's to read?
Admittedly, I do have astonishing psychic powers, but if a news reader gloats that 12 women may become governors, "most of the Democrats," it's not hard to tell what she means, especially since she left out information about them except their sex, er, gender, and party affiliation.
How can you get all this from a NEWS READER who is paid to read what is written on a teleprompter? How do you know she is even a feminist? Even if she is, how does the poster know the female in question votes for women only because they are women?
And by inference, how does she know that women who call themselves "feminists" vote for women only because they are women, "with no consideration whatsoever for their platforms, beliefs, or qualifications for the job." I tend to seriously doubt that. For example: Would every feminist vote for a pro-Life woman candidate? I doubt all feminists would.
Which is why I replied that apparently somebody must be psychic to infer all that from a NEWS READERS' reading of the "news".
It is ludicrous to believe that masses of "feminists" would vote for woman cadidates who did not share their ideology. Why would they do that? What would be the point of voting for someone who did not share your ideological beliefs?
I'm clutching my little chunk of snowflake obsidian in the certainty that it will give me universal psychic protection [qualifier] - but no need to use anything apart more than common sense to know that Poised Woman is 100% on the money about the ABC news reader.
Oh, oh! HOW do I get one of those high payin' jobs just to read off a teleprompter??? I want one, and I want one NOW!!!
I don't know how it is in America. But the women who work as newscasters, anchor women in Ireland work (when off air) in the newsroom, assisting in research, writing their own scripts, and are genuine newswomen. While doing my journalism college course I spent some time in the newsroom of RTE (Ireland's national broadcaster), and those newsreaders, were far more than 'the thinkin' mans bit of crumpet' on the nine o'clock news. They had written and researched most of the broadcast...and if not that, had at least validified the stories they read.
Although I agree with most of your post, this is an example of groupthink. We are all individuals, that is our strength. If you want to wint this one, get your kids out of publik skools.
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